Why is high data rate so important?
A. High data rate means that topographical mapping, for example, can be obtained more rapidly decreasing the flight time required. A clear but perhaps not-so-intuitive advantage of the high data rate is that time dependent 3-D movies can be acquired at the repetition frequency of the associated laser, making 3-D collision avoidance, 3-D robotic navigation and 3-D object tracking possible. The high-speed deformation of objects can also be captured. Another not-so-intuitive advantage is that the 3-D images cannot be blurred by platform motion, platform vibration and object motion due to the speed-of-light capture of the data frame.
