Peak detection approaches for time-correlated single-photon counting three-dimensional lidar systems

Time-correlated single-photon counting lidar provides very high-resolution range measurements, making the technology interesting for 3D imaging of objects behind foliage or other obscuration. We study six peak detection approaches and compare their performance from several perspectives: detection of double surfaces within the instantaneous field of view, range accuracy, performance under sparse sampling, and the number of outliers. The results presented are based on reference measurements of a characterization target. Special consideration is given to the possibility of resolving two surfaces closely separated in range within the field of view of a single pixel. An approach based on fitting a linear combination of impulse response functions to the collected data showed the best overall performance.