A Calibration Method for Time Dimension and Space Dimension of Streak Tube Imaging Lidar

Owing to the special working systems of streak tube imaging lidar (STIL), the time and space dimensions are coupled together on the streak images. This coupling can cause measurement errors in 3D point clouds and can make measurement results more complicated to calibrate than other kinds of lidars. This paper presents a method to generate a time calibration array and an angle calibration array to separate the offset of the streak into time dimension and space dimension. The time and space information of the signal at any position on the streak image can be indexed through these two arrays. A validation experiment on aircraft was carried out, and the range error of the 3D point cloud was improved from 0.41 m to 0.27 m using the proposed calibration method. Thus, using the proposed calibration method can improve the accuracy of the point cloud produced by STIL.