Point Pattern Estimators for Multi-Beam Lidar Scans

In this work, point pattern estimators are used to analyze the distribution of measurements from a multi-beam Lidar on a pitching platform. Multi-beam Lidars have high resolution in the horizontal plane, but poor vertical resolution. Placing the Lidar on a pitching base improves this resolution, but causes the distribution of measurements to be highly irregular. In this work, these measurement distributions are treated as point patterns and three estimators are used to quantify how measurements are spaced, which has implications in robotic detection of objects using Lidar sensors. These estimators are used to demonstrate how a pitching trajectory for the platform can be chosen to improve multiple performance criteria, such as increasing the likelihood of detection of an object, or adjusting how closely measurements should be spaced.