Current airborne Lidar systems, such as the Leica ALS series, capture one million points per second. Increasing the pulse repetition rate is the best way to achieve dense point clouds at lower costs, as the flying speed can be increased. However, the pulse frequency is constrained by parameters such as energy consumption and eye safety. Single photon Lidar enables a much higher pulse rate to be achieved, since much less energy is needed per pulse. Lidar systems are typically constructed from a number of components: a range-finding system, scanning optics to direct the laser pulses, and a position and orientation...
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