Analyzer on received waveforms of laser altimeter

The received waveforms of laser altimeter were composed of multiple non-Gaussian waveforms appended with noise. It was absolutely crucial for retrieving the height and category of target by extracting the statistical parameters of non-Gaussian waveforms. Based on the feature of received pulse signal, its mathematics model was described with generalized Gaussian function. Using the method of smoothing filtering and calculating initial parameters on received waveforms, and the non-linear least squares algorithm, an analyzer with extracting the statistical parameters for received waveforms was developed. In terms of the analyzer, simulated waveforms processing and statistical parameters extraction were performed well. The analyzed results show that the maximal extraction error for statistical parameters is less than 1% for the single generalized Gaussian waveforms with 15 dB signal to noise ratio (SNR). Meanwhile, with the increase of the number of generalized Gaussian components and the decrease of SNR, extraction error for statistical parameters becomes larger. The statistical parameters can be extracted effectively with waveforms analyzer, which provides data gist for retrieving the target information.