Distance Measurement and Data Analysis for Civil Aviation at 1000 Frames per Second Using Single-Photon Detection Technology

During high-speed maneuvers, aircraft experience rapid distance changes, necessitating high-frame-rate ranging for accurate characterization. However, existing optical ranging technologies often lack simplicity, affordability, and sufficient frame rates. While dual-station triangulation enables high-frame-rate distance calculation via geometry, it suffers from complex and costly deployment. Conventional laser rangefinders are limited by low repetition rates. Single-photon ranging, using high-frequency low-energy pulses and detecting single reflected photons, offers a promising alternative. This study presents a kilohertz-level single-photon ranging system validated through civil aviation field tests. At 1000 Hz, relative distance, velocity, and acceleration were successfully captured. Simulating lower frame rates (100 Hz, 50 Hz, 10 Hz) via misalignment merging revealed standard deviations of 0.1661 m, 0.2361 m, and 0.2683 m, respectively, indicating that higher frame rates enhance distance measurement reproducibility. Error analysis against the 1000 Hz baseline further confirms that high-frame-rate ranging improves precision when monitoring high-speed maneuvers.