FPGA based Low Power Laser Range Finder

We propose Digital Signal Processing techniques which are useful in detecting signals which are corrupted by additive noise. The proposed Digital Signal processing techniques are used in a low power laser range finder based on FPGA technology. Highlights of the laser range finder are low power laser emission, eye safe operation, coherent integrations for signal to noise ratio improvement, matched filtering for received pulse detection and automatic signal gain adjustment based on the received signal characteristics. Signal Processing techniques used in this application are analyzed and this analysis of different target distances against the no. of coherent integrations is presented in the paper. The overall signal processing scheme shows good ability to reduce the false detections and thereby provide accurate range measurement.