LIGHTING SYSTEM FOR AN OPTICAL NAVIGATION BEACON

A lighting system (104, 1400) for a navigational system (100) of a vehicle includes a scanning unit (110, 110A, 110B, 1410, 1410A, 1410B) and one or more lighting assemblies (104, 104A, 104B, 404, 1204A, 1204B, 1204C, 1204D, 1204E, 1204F, 1204G, 1204H, 12041, 1204J, 1304). Each lighting assembly (104, 104A, 104B, 404, 1204A, 1204B, 1204C, 1204D, 1204E, 1204F, 1204G, 1204H, 12041, 1204J, 1304) includes one or more laser diodes (124, 1224, 1224A, 1224B) configured to emit light, a lens array (106, 106A, 106B, 206, 302, 1206) including one or more lens elements (206, 206A, 206B, 206C, 206D, 206E, 206F, 1216), and a controller (122, 1222, 1222A, 1222B, 1622) electrically coupled with each of the laser diodes (124, 1224, 1224A, 1224B). The lens array (106, 106A, 106B, 206, 302, 1206) receives incoming light from the laser diodes (124, 1224, 1224A, 1224B) and direct the incoming light from the lens array (106, 106A, 106B, 206, 302, 1206) as a collimated beam (1408, 1508). The controller (122, 1222, 1222A, 1222B, 1622) individually controls a power level of each of the laser diodes (124, 1224, 1224A, 1224B). The laser diodes (124, 1224, 1224A, 1224B), the lens array (106, 106A, 106B, 206, 302, 1206), and the controller (122, 1222, 1222A, 1222B, 1622) are disposed on a substrate (120, 1220, 1720) and disposed in a common housing (111, 1211). Each lighting assembly (104, 104A, 104B, 404, 1204A, 1204B, 1204C, 1204D, 1204E, 1204F, 1204G, 1204H, 12041, 1204J, 1304) is arranged in an arc relative to the scanning unit (110, 110A, 110B, 1410, 1410A, 1410B). The scanning unit (110, 110A, 110B, 1410, 1410A, 1410B) receives the collimated beam (1408, 1508) from each lighting assembly (104, 104A, 104B, 404, 1204A, 1204B, 1204C, 1204D, 1204E, 1204F, 1204G, 1204H, 12041, 1204J, 1304) and directs the collimated beam (1408, 1508) from each lighting assembly (104, 104A, 104B, 404, 1204A, 1204B, 1204C, 1204D, 1204E, 1204F, 1204G, 1204H, 12041, 1204J, 1304) in two orthogonal directions.