IL310326B2 - Blooming mitigation for multichannel lidar detection system - Google Patents

Description

IL310326/ BLOOMING MITIGATION FOR MULTICHANNEL LIDAR DETECTION SYSTEM FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure relates generally to technologies for scanning 5a surrounding environment, and particularly, to systems and methods for detecting objects using LIDAR scanning and applicable for vehicle use. BACKGROUND With the advent of driver assistance systems and autonomous 10vehicles, automobiles need to be equipped with systems capable of reliably sensing and interpreting their surroundings, including identifying obstacles, hazards, objects, and other physical parameters that might impact navigation of the vehicle. To this end, a number of differing technologies have been suggested, such as radar and camera-based systems, operating alone or in a redundant 15manner. One consideration with driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles is an ability to determine surroundings across different environmental conditions, including rain, fog, darkness, bright light, and snow. A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system is an example of technology that can work well in 20differing conditions, by measuring distances to objects by illuminating objects with a light source, such as a laser, and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor. The LIDAR system may include a light deflector for projecting light emitted by the light source into the environment, where the light deflector may be controlled to pivot around at least one axis for projecting the light into a desired location in the 25field of view. The received reflections may be used to generate a point cloud or depth map representative of spatial locations of objects in the field of view. For certain applications, the maximum illumination power of a LIDAR system may be limited by eye-safety requirements, so as to avoid damaging of an eye which can occur when a light emission is absorbed by the cornea and lens of an eye which 30can cause thermal damage of the retina.

IL310326/ A driving environment typically contains objects having a high reflectivity, such as traffic signs and road markings, particularly those with retroreflectors. Vehicle based LIDAR systems are sensitive to high-intensity reflections, which may result in adverse phenomena in the generated point cloud map. One such phenomenon is that of "ghost objects", in which a highly reflective 5object produces an additional "ghost" point cloud of the object at a different location of the point cloud map and having a similar size and shape as that of the actual object point cloud at its proper location. Another phenomenon is "saturation" where a high intensity reflection received by a photodetector exceeds the maximum detection capacity (i.e., is above the high end of the dynamic range), 10resulting in an incorrect signal output that is lower or "clipped" relative to the true signal value. A saturated detector generally requires time to return to normal operation, rendering the system ineffective during such a recovery period. Yet another phenomenon known as "blooming" occurs when excess photons from high intensity reflections incident on an individual detection element, such as a 15detector pixel of a multipixel array, overflows to neighboring detector pixels, causing false readings. This can be manifested as visual artifacts in the resultant point cloud based on the sensor output, where the point cloud of an object expands beyond the object contours and into the surrounding area, for example causing the appearance of a bright halo around the object. This may lead to 20misrepresentation of the object size or shape, such as an erroneous determination that the detected object is larger than its actual size or having a different shape. Blooming effects in the point cloud may also obstruct other objects in the vicinity and prevent their detection. More generally, blooming can significantly hinder the ability to accurately identify and to determine characteristics of high reflectivity 25objects and surrounding areas, and to interpret the vehicle surroundings, such as to ascertain whether such objects pose a potential driving hazard. Blooming effects may be induced by various factors, including optical issues (e.g., incident light on neighboring sensor pixels from high intensity reflections; stray light scattered inside optical components), and electronic issues (e.g., leakage of 30photodetector electrons between different channels).

IL310326/ Accordingly, there is a need to mitigate the adverse effects of blooming in LIDAR detection systems and to provide enhanced detection capabilities in conditions that may lead to blooming. 5 IL310326/ SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSUREIn accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is thus provided a LIDAR system for detecting objects in a field of view (FOV). The LIDAR system comprises a laser emission unit, a scanning unit, a sensing unit, and a processor. The laser emission unit comprises at least one monolithic laser emitter 5array comprising a plurality of laser emitters, each of the emitters configured to emit a respective laser beam. The scanning unit is configured to direct emitted beams towards the FOV. The sensing unit comprises at least one monolithic detector array comprising a plurality of detectors, each of the detectors configured to detect a respective reflected beam from the FOV. The processor is configured 10to control at least one of the laser emission unit and the scanning unit to direct the emitted beams to the FOV according to an alternating energy level illumination protocol comprising: at a first time of a scanning cycle, emitting a first emitted beam by a first emitter and having a first energy level to illuminate a first FOV region, and emitting a second emitted beam by a second emitter and having a 15second energy level to illuminate a second FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region, and at a second time of the scanning cycle, emitting a third emitted beam by the second emitter and having the second energy level to illuminate a third FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region, and emitting a fourth emitted beam by the first emitter and having the first energy level to illuminate a fourth FOV 20region, adjacent to the first FOV region and to the third FOV region, where the first energy level is lower than the second energy level, such that in at least one time segment of the scanning cycle, at least one detection pixel of the detector array, receiving reflections of the emitted beams from a target object in the FOV, is a valid detection pixel not resulting from blooming effects. The first energy level may 25comprise a non-emission of light by the first emitter, and the second energy level may comprise an emission of light by the second emitter. The first energy level and the second energy level may differ in at least one property of: a radiant intensity; a peak power; a beam width; an emission operating mode; an ON/OFF emission scheme; an emission modulation; an emission timing; a number of 30pulses in a pulse sequence; an overall light flux; an emission wavelength; and/or an emission frequency. The first emitted beam and the second emitted beam may be emitted simultaneously. The processor may be configured to determine at least IL310326/ one updated parameter of a target object in the FOV, in accordance with the received reflected beams. The processor may be configured to determine a blooming of a target object in the FOV, in accordance with the received reflected beams. The LIDAR system may be configured to implement at least one blooming corrective measure to offset a determined blooming. The scanning unit may be 5configured to scan the FOV by directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV; displacing the emitted beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines; and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, and the alternating energy level 10illumination protocol may comprise activating at least one emitter group of the emitters and deactivating at least one emitter group of the emitters in at least a portion of a frame, where for at least one scan line of the plurality of scan lines, the processor may be configured to activate at least one first emitter group of the emitters to emit at least one beam during a first segment of the scan line, and to 15deactivate at least one second emitter group of the emitters to not emit a beam during the first segment of the scan line; where the processor may be further configured to deactivate the first emitter group during a second segment of the scan line, and to activate the second emitter group during the second segment of the scan line. The alternating energy level illumination protocol may be applied for 20each frame in a sequence of frames. A first alternating energy level illumination protocol may be applied to illuminate a first region of a frame, and a second alternating energy level illumination protocol may be applied to illuminate a second region of the frame. The processor may be configured to generate a point cloud comprising spatial locations of objects in the FOV, based on reflected 25beams detected by the detector array, and to determine blooming artifacts in at least one of the first point cloud and the second point cloud, where the alternating energy level illumination protocol is applied responsive to the determination. The scanning unit may be configured to scan the FOV by directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV; displacing the emitted 30beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines; and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, where the IL310326/ scanning unit may be configured to displace the emitted beams by sequentially rotating a scanning device about two axes including a scanning axis and a tilt axis, and at least one of the first plurality of scan lines and the second plurality of scan lines may comprise multiple scan lines at a common angular position along the tilt axis, and the processor may be configured to activate at least one first emitter 5group of the emitters to emit at least one beam during a first scan line of the multiple scan lines, and to deactivate at least one second emitter group of the emitters to not emit a beam during the first scan line of the multiple scan lines, and configured to deactivate the first emitter group during a second scan line of the multiple scan lines, and to activate the second emitter group during the second 10scan line of the multiple scan lines. For each pixel corresponding to a respective emitter group of the emitter array and to a respective detector group of the detector array, the processor may be configured to classify the pixel into a first category comprising a region containing at least one high-reflectivity object, or into a second category comprising a region not containing at least one high-reflectivity 15object, and the processor may be further configured to apply the alternating energy level illumination protocol responsive to the classification, by activating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the first category and deactivating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the second category during one scan line of the multiple scan lines, and by activating each of the emitter groups 20of pixels classified in the second category and deactivating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the first category during another scan line of the multiple scan lines. The processor may be configured to apply at least one corrective measure to mitigate blooming artifacts in a generated point cloud responsive to the classification, by applying the corrective measure only at 25selected pixels of the point cloud classified in the first category. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is thus provided a method for detecting objects in a field of view (FOV) using LIDAR. The method comprises the step of emitting a respective laser beam from respective emitters of a plurality of laser emitters of at least one monolithic laser 30emitter array of a laser emission unit. The method comprises the step of directing emitted beams towards the FOV, using a scanning unit. The method comprises the step of detecting a respective reflected beam from the FOV by respective IL310326/ detectors of a plurality of detectors of at least one monolithic detector array of a sensing unit. The method comprises the step of controlling at least one of the laser emission unit and the scanning unit, to direct the emitted beams to the FOV according to an alternating energy level illumination protocol comprising: at a first time of a scanning cycle, emitting a first emitted beam by a first emitter and having 5a first energy level to illuminate a first FOV region, and emitting a second emitted beam by a second emitter and having a second energy level to illuminate a second FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region, and at a second time of the scanning cycle, emitting a third emitted beam by the second emitter and having the second energy level to illuminate a third FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region, and 10emitting a fourth emitted beam by the first emitter and having the first energy level to illuminate a fourth FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region and to the third FOV region, where the first energy level is lower than the second energy level, such that in at least one time segment of the scanning cycle, at least one detection pixel of the detector array, receiving reflections of the emitted beams from a target 15object in the FOV, is a valid detection pixel not resulting from blooming effects. The first energy level may comprise a non-emission of light by the first emitter, and the second energy level may comprise an emission of light by the second emitter. The step of controlling may comprise controlling at least one property of at least one of the first energy level and the second energy level, where the 20property includes: a radiant intensity; a peak power; a beam width; an emission operating mode; an ON/OFF emission scheme; an emission modulation; an emission timing; a number of pulses in a pulse sequence; an overall light flux; an emission wavelength; and/or an emission frequency. The first emitted beam and the second emitted beam may be emitted simultaneously. The method may 25further comprise the step of determining at least one updated parameter of a target object in the FOV, in accordance with the received reflected beams. The method may further comprise the step of determining a blooming of a target object in the FOV, in accordance with the received reflected beams. The method may further comprise the step of implementing at least one blooming corrective 30measure to offset a determined blooming. The scanning unit may be configured to scan the FOV by directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV; displacing the emitted beams from a first set of locations IL310326/ associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines; and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, and the alternating energy level illumination protocol may comprise activating at least one emitter group of the emitters and deactivating at least one emitter group of the emitters in at least a 5portion of a frame, where for at least one scan line of the plurality of scan lines, at least one first emitter group of the emitters may be activated to emit at least one beam during a first segment of the scan line, and at least one second emitter group of the emitters may be deactivated to not emit a beam during the first segment of the scan line; and the first emitter group may be deactivated during a 10second segment of the scan line, and the second emitter group may be activated during the second segment of the scan line. The alternating energy level illumination protocol may be applied for each frame in a sequence of frames. A first alternating energy level illumination protocol may be applied to illuminate a first region of a frame, and a second alternating energy level illumination protocol 15may be applied to illuminate a second region of the frame. The method may further comprise the steps of: generating a point cloud comprising spatial locations of objects in the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array; and determining blooming artifacts in at least one of the first point cloud and the second point cloud, where the alternating energy level illumination protocol is 20applied responsive to the determination. The scanning unit may be configured to scan the FOV by directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV; displacing the emitted beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines; and directing the emitted beams 25along the second plurality of scan lines, and the scanning unit may be configured to displace the emitted beams by sequentially rotating a scanning device about two axes including a scanning axis and a tilt axis, where at least one of the first plurality of scan lines and the second plurality of scan lines may comprise multiple scan lines at a common angular position along the tilt axis, and at least one first 30emitter group of the emitters may be activated to emit at least one beam during a first scan line of the multiple scan lines, and at least one second emitter group of the emitters may be deactivated to not emit a beam during the first scan line of IL310326/ the multiple scan lines, and the first emitter group may be deactivated during a second scan line of the multiple scan lines, and the second emitter group may be activated during the second scan line of the multiple scan lines. The method may further comprise the steps of: for each pixel corresponding to a respective emitter group of the emitter array and to a respective detector group of the detector array, 5classifying the pixel into a first category comprising a region containing at least one high-reflectivity object, or into a second category comprising a region not containing at least one high-reflectivity object; and applying the alternating energy level illumination protocol responsive to the classification, by activating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the first category and deactivating each 10of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the second category during one scan line of the multiple scan lines, and by activating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the second category and deactivating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the first category during another scan line of the multiple scan lines. The method may further comprise the step of applying at least 15one corrective measure to mitigate blooming artifacts in a generated point cloud responsive to the classification, by applying the corrective measure only at selected pixels of the point cloud classified in the first category. In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, there is thus provided a LIDAR system for detecting objects in a field of view (FOV). The 20LIDAR system comprises a laser emission unit, a scanning unit, a sensing unit, and a processor. The laser emission unit comprises at least one monolithic laser emitter array comprising a plurality of laser emitters, each of the emitters configured to emit a respective laser beam. The scanning unit is configured to direct emitted beams towards the FOV, and to scan the FOV by directing the 25emitted beams along a plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV. The sensing unit comprises at least one monolithic detector array comprising a plurality of detectors, each of the detectors configured to detect a respective reflected beam from the FOV. The processor is configured to control the scanning unit, according to a shifted illumination protocol comprising: directing the emitted beams along a 30first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV; spatially displacing the emitted beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines, IL310326/ spatially displaced from the first plurality of scan lines along a tilt axis by a displacement amount defining a tilt increment transverse to the scanning direction along a scan axis, the tilt increment being less than the angular size of the emitter array, and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, where a first emitted beam emitted by a first emitter of the emitter array in the first 5plurality of scan lines, illuminates a FOV portion of the FOV at a first time of a scanning cycle, and a second emitted beam emitted by a second emitter in the emitter array in the second plurality of scan lines, illuminates the FOV portion at a second time of the scanning cycle, the second time subsequent to the first time, such that at least one detection pixel of the detector array, receiving reflections of 10the emitted beams from a target object in the FOV, is a valid detection pixel not resulting from blooming effects, in at least one time segment of the scanning cycle, for at least a portion of the field of view along the tilt axis. The first emitted beam and the second emitted beam may be in a common frame. The first emitted beam may be in a first frame, and the second emitted beam may be in a second frame. 15The processor may be configured to repeatedly spatially displace the emitted beams from the first set of locations to the second set of locations, over a plurality of respective spatial displacements for a sequence of frames, each of the spatial displacements defining a respective tilt increment. The FOV may include at least one region of interest (ROI), and at least one non region of interest (NROI), where 20the NROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines defining a first scanning resolution, and the ROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines defining a second scanning resolution higher than the first scanning resolution. The NROI may be scanned along a plurality of scan lines comprising a relative spatial displacement corresponding to an angular size of the emitter array, and the ROI may be 25scanned along a plurality of scan lines comprising a relative spatial displacement corresponding to an angular size between adjacent emitters of the emitter array. The processor may be configured to generate a first point cloud and a second point cloud, each comprising spatial locations of objects in the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the FOV, to compare the first 30point cloud with the second point cloud to detect an inconsistency therebetween. The FOV may comprise at least one target object and at least one highly reflective object, and the processor may be configured to determine blooming artifacts in at IL310326/ least one of the first point cloud and the second point cloud. The FOV may comprise at least one target object and at least one highly reflective object, and the processor may be configured to generate a first point cloud comprising spatial locations of a first region of the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the first region of the FOV, to determine blooming artifacts in 5the second point cloud associated with the highly reflected object, and to generate a second point cloud comprising spatial locations of a second region of the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the second region of the FOV, and to detect the target object in the second point cloud. In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there 10is thus provided a method for detecting objects in a field of view (FOV) using LIDAR. The method comprises the step of emitting a respective laser beam from respective emitters of a plurality of laser emitters of at least one monolithic laser emitter array of a laser emission unit. The method comprises the step of directing emitted beams towards the FOV, using a scanning unit. The method comprises 15the step of detecting a respective reflected beam from the FOV by respective detectors of a plurality of detectors of at least one monolithic detector array of a sensing unit. The method comprises the step of controlling the scanning unit to direct the emitted beams to the FOV according to a shifted illumination protocol comprising: directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines 20traversing the FOV; spatially displacing the emitted beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines, spatially displaced from the first plurality of scan lines along a tilt axis by a displacement amount defining a tilt increment transverse to the scanning direction along a scan axis, the tilt increment 25being less than the angular size of the emitter array; and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, where a first emitted beam emitted by a first emitter in the emitter array in the first plurality of scan lines, illuminates a FOV portion of the FOV at a first time of the scanning cycle, and a second emitted beam emitted by a second emitter in the emitter array in the second 30plurality of scan lines, illuminates the FOV portion at a second time of the scanning cycle, the second time subsequent to the first time, such that at least one detection pixel of the detector array, receiving reflections of the emitted beams from a target IL310326/ object in the FOV, is a valid detection pixel not resulting from blooming effects, in at least one time segment of the scanning cycle, for at least a portion of the field of view along the tilt axis. The first emitted beam and the second emitted beam may be in a common frame. The first emitted beam may be in a first frame, and the second emitted beam may be in a second frame. The method may comprise 5repeatedly spatially displacing the emitted beams from the first set of locations to the second set of locations, over a plurality of respective spatial displacements for a sequence of frames, each of the spatial displacements defining a respective tilt increment. The FOV may include at least one region of interest (ROI) and at least one non region of interest (NROI), where the NROI is scanned along a plurality of 10scan lines defining a first scanning resolution, and the ROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines defining a second scanning resolution higher than the first scanning resolution. The NROI may be scanned along a plurality of scan lines comprising a relative spatial displacement corresponding to an angular size of the emitter array, and the ROI may be scanned along a plurality of scan lines 15comprising a relative spatial displacement corresponding to an angular size between adjacent emitters of the emitter array. The method may further comprise the steps of: generating a first point cloud and a second point cloud, each comprising spatial locations of objects in the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the FOV; and comparing the first point cloud 20with the second point cloud to detect an inconsistency therebetween. The FOV may comprise at least one target object and at least one highly reflective object, and the method may further comprise the step of determining blooming artifacts in at least one of the first point cloud and the second point cloud. The FOV may comprises at least one target object and at least one highly reflective object, and 25the method may further comprise the steps of: generating a first point cloud comprising spatial locations of a first region of the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the first region of the FOV; determining blooming artifacts in the second point cloud associated with the highly reflected object; generating a second point cloud comprising spatial locations of a second 30region of the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the second region of the FOV; and detecting the target object in the second point cloud.

IL310326/ BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe present disclosure will be understood and appreciated more fully from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings in which: 5Figure 1A is a schematic illustration of a LIDAR system, constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 1B is an image of an exemplary output from a single scanning cycle of the LIDAR system of Fig.1A, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 10Figure 2A is a schematic illustration of an exemplary multichannel LIDAR system, constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 2B is a schematic illustration of another exemplary multichannel LIDAR system, constructed and operative in accordance with another 15embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 3A is an illustration of an exemplary scanning pattern of a field of view obtained using a scanning device, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 3B is an illustration of another exemplary scanning pattern of a 20field of view obtained using a scanning device, operative in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 4A is an illustration of a first exemplary detector array, constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 25Figure 4B is an illustration of a second exemplary detector array, constructed and operative in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 4C is an illustration of a third exemplary detector array, constructed and operative in accordance with a further embodiment of the present 30disclosure; IL310326/ Figure 5A is a schematic illustration of an exemplary illumination protocol with uniform energy levels and emitted beams incident entirely on an object; Figure 5B is a schematic illustration of another exemplary illumination protocol with uniform energy levels and emitted beams incident partially on an 5object; Figure 6A is a schematic illustration of an exemplary illumination protocol with alternating energy levels and emitted beams incident entirely on an object, operative in accordance with a further embodiment of the present disclosure; 10Figure 6B is a schematic illustration of another exemplary illumination protocol with alternating energy levels and emitted beams incident partially on an object, operative in accordance with a further embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 6C is a schematic illustration of a further exemplary illumination 15protocol with alternating energy levels and emitted beams incident partially on an object for an extended duration, operative in accordance with a further embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 7A is an illustration of an exemplary illumination protocol where a region of interest in the scene is partially obscured, operative in accordance with 20an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 7B is an illustration of another exemplary illumination protocol with a vertically shifted illumination, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 7C is a sequence of image frames of an exemplary point cloud 25map obtained using the illumination protocol of Fig.7B, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 8A is a front view schematic illustration of an exemplary mutual illumination of a target object and a highly reflected object positioned at a same range and at different heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the 30present disclosure; Figure 8B is a side view schematic illustration of an exemplary mutual illumination a target object and a highly reflected object positioned at a same IL310326/ range and at different heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 8C is a front view schematic illustration of an exemplary mutual illumination of a target object and a highly reflected object positioned at different ranges and at different heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment of 5the present disclosure; Figure 8D is a side view schematic illustration of an exemplary mutual illumination a target object and a highly reflected object positioned at different ranges and at different heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 10Figure 8E is a front view schematic illustration of an exemplary mutual illumination of a target object and a highly reflected object positioned at different ranges and at overlapping heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 8F is a side view schematic illustration of an exemplary mutual 15illumination a target object and a highly reflected object positioned at different ranges and at overlapping heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 8G is a front view schematic illustration of an exemplary separated illumination of a target object and a highly reflected object positioned 20at a same range and at different heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 8H is a side view schematic illustration of an exemplary separated illumination a target object and a highly reflected object positioned at a same range and at different heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment 25of the present disclosure; Figure 8I is a front view schematic illustration of an exemplary separated illumination of a target object and a highly reflected object positioned at different ranges and at different heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 30Figure 8J is a side view schematic illustration of an exemplary separated illumination a target object and a highly reflected object positioned at IL310326/ different ranges and at different heights, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 9 is a sequence of frames of an exemplary point cloud map obtained using the vertically shifted illumination protocol of Fig.7B, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 5Figure 10A is an illustration of an exemplary default scanning pattern with variable resolution for different subregions of the field of view; Figure 10B is an illustration of an exemplary vertically tilted scanning pattern with variable resolution for different subregions of the field of view, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 10Figure 11 is an illustration of a sequence of exemplary vertically tilted scanning cycles with variable resolution, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 12 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary frame divided into subregions, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present 15disclosure; Figure 13 is an illustration of a default illumination protocol of a multichannel emitter array for a frame portion; Figure 14A is an illustration of an exemplary alternating illumination protocol with selectively activated emissions over a frame sequence, for applying 20to selected frame subregions, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 14B is an illustration of another exemplary alternating illumination protocol with selectively activated emissions over a frame sequence, for applying to selected frame subregions, operative in accordance with an 25embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 14C is an illustration of a timing graph of emissions relating to the default illumination protocol of Fig.13, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 14D is an illustration of a timing graph of emissions relating to 30the alternating illumination protocol of Fig.14A, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; IL310326/ Figure 15A is an illustration of a general reflection pattern obtained using the alternating illumination protocol of Fig.14A with a retroflector at a first exemplary position in the FOV, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 15B is an illustration of a general reflection pattern obtained 5using the alternating illumination protocol of Fig.14A with a retroflector at a second exemplary position in the FOV, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 16 is an illustration of a further exemplary alternating illumination protocol with selectively activated emissions over a frame sequence, for applying 10to a selected frame subregion, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 17A is an illustration of an exemplary illumination by a multichannel emitter array of a scene having a retroreflector in proximity to a target object, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 15Figure 17B is an illustration of a detector macro-pixel response profile corresponding to the exemplary illumination of Fig.17A, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and Figure 18 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary frame with classification of macro-pixels between highly reflective and non-highly reflective 20object reflections, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

IL310326/ DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTSThe present disclosure overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing methods and systems for mitigating the effects of blooming in LIDAR detection systems. In particular, the disclosed methods and systems is directed to maintain object detection capabilities of a LIDAR detection system even when 5subject to blooming effects. Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, 10should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the specification and claims and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity. It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc., may be 15used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. Rather, these terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer and/or section, from another element, component, region, layer and/or section. 20It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "on", "attached" to, "operatively coupled" to, "operatively linked" to, "operatively engaged" with, "connected" to, "coupled" with, "contacting", "added to, another element, it can be directly on, attached to, connected to, operatively coupled to, operatively engaged with, coupled with, added to, and/or contacting the other 25element or intervening elements can also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly contacting" another element or "directly added" to another element, there are no intervening elements and/or steps present. Whenever the term "about" or "approximately" is used, it is meant to 30refer to a measurable value such as an amount, a temporal duration, and the like, and is meant to encompass variations (e.g., ±20%, ±10%, ±5%, ±1%, ±0.1%) from IL310326/ the specified value, as such variations are appropriate to perform the disclosed methods. Certain features of the disclosure, which are, for clarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the disclosure, which are, for 5brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any suitable sub-combination or as suitable in any other described embodiment of the disclosure. Certain features described in the context of various embodiments are not to be considered essential features of those embodiments, unless the embodiment is inoperative without those elements. 10Throughout this application, various embodiments may be presented in a range format. It should be understood that the description in range format is merely for convenience and brevity and should not be construed as an inflexible limitation on the scope of the embodiments. Accordingly, the description of a range should be considered to have specifically disclosed all the possible 15subranges as well as individual numerical values within that range, regardless of the breadth of the range. For example, description of a range such as from 1 to should be considered to have specifically disclosed subranges such as from 1 to 3, from 1 to 4, from 1 to 5, from 2 to 4, from 2 to 6, from 3 to 6 etc., as well as individual numbers within that range, for example, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Whenever 20a numerical range is indicated herein, it is meant to include any cited numeral (fractional or integral) within the indicated range. For example, the phrases "ranging/ranges between" a first indicated number and a second indicated number and "ranging/ranges from" a first indicated number "to" a second indicated number are used herein interchangeably and are meant to include the first and second 25indicated numbers and all fractional and integral numerals there between. Whenever terms "plurality" and "a plurality" are used it is meant to include, for example, "multiple" or "two or more". The terms "plurality" or "a plurality" may be used throughout the specification to describe two or more components, devices, elements, units, parameters, or the like. The term set when 30used herein may include one or more items. Unless explicitly stated, the method embodiments described herein are not constrained to a particular order or sequence. Additionally, some of the described method embodiments or elements IL310326/ thereof can occur or be performed simultaneously, at the same point in time, or concurrently. The term "repeatedly" as used herein should be broadly construed to include any one or more of: "continuously", "periodic repetition" and "nonperiodic repetition", where periodic repetition is characterized by constant length intervals 5between repetitions and non-periodic repetition is characterized by variable length intervals between repetitions. The term "high reflectivity object" is use herein to refer to an object or entity that reflects and/or emits a substantially high level of radiant intensity, such that reflections received from such an object may result in undesirable 10electro-optical phenomena, such as blooming effects. Examples of high reflectivity objects may include, but are not limited to, traffic signs and road markings having a retro-reflective element (e.g., a retroreflective sticker on a vehicle rear bumper), as well as highly radiant light emission sources, such from a LIDAR system of an oncoming vehicle. 15The terms "user" and "operator" are used interchangeably herein to refer to any individual person or group of persons using or operating a method, device, or system in accordance with disclosed embodiments. Disclosed embodiments are described herein for exemplary purposes in the context of a vehicle-mounted LIDAR system for driving assistance 20applications but may be further applicable in other contexts and uses. The term "vehicle" should be broadly interpreted to refer to any type of vehicle or transportation device operating in any environment (e.g., air, land or sea), including but not limited to: automobiles, buses, vans, trucks, motorcycles; aircrafts or maritime vessels; unmanned aerial vehicles (drones); electric or hybrid 25vehicles; electric bicycles (e-bikes); electric scooters (e-scooters); and the like Reference is now made to Figure 1A, which is a schematic illustration of a LIDAR system, generally referenced 100, constructed and operative in accordance with a disclosed embodiment. LIDAR system 100 includes a projecting unit 102, a scanning unit 104, a sensing unit 106, and a processing unit 30108. Projecting unit 102 includes at least one light source 112. Scanning unit 1includes at least one light deflector 114. Sensing unit 106 includes at least one sensor 116. Processing unit 108 includes at least one processor 118. LIDAR IL310326/ system 100 may be mounted on a vehicle 110. Projecting unit 102 projects light towards an environment of LIDAR system 100, such as towards an environment around vehicle 110. Scanning unit 104 directs projected light towards the environment to scan a field of view (FOV) 120 around vehicle 110, and scanning unit 104 directs reflected light from the environment to sensing unit 106. Sensing 5unit 106 receives reflections from the surroundings of vehicle 110 and sends reflections signals indicative of light reflected from objects in FOV 120 to processing unit 108. LIDAR system 100 optionally includes at least one optical window 124 for directing projected light towards FOV 120 and/or for receiving reflected light reflected from objects in FOV 120. Optical window 124 may include 10or be associated with an optical assembly for manipulating one or more characteristics of projected or reflected light, such as collimating of projected light or focusing of reflected light. Optical window 124 may be embodied, for example, by an opening, a flat window, a lens, or another type of optical element. At least a portion of LIDAR system 100 may be mounted to or 15incorporated into a portion of vehicle 110, such as: a bumper, a fender, a side panel, a spoiler, a roof, a headlight assembly, a taillight assembly, a rear-view mirror assembly, a hood, a trunk or any other suitable part of vehicle 110 capable of housing at least a portion of LIDAR system 100. In some embodiments, LIDAR system 100 may capture a complete surround view of the environment of vehicle 20110, such as being characterized by a 360-degree horizontal field of view. In one example, LIDAR system 100 may include a single scanning unit 104 mounted on a roof of vehicle 110. In another example, LIDAR system 100 may include multiple scanning units 104, each having a respective field of view (e.g., an 80° to 120° field of view), such that in the aggregate the horizontal field of view is covered by 25a 360-degree scan around vehicle 110. Alternatively, a 360-degree horizontal field of view may be obtained by mounting multiple LIDAR systems 100 on vehicle 110, each LIDAR system 100 having a single scanning unit 104. It is noted that one or more LIDAR systems 100 do not have to provide a complete 360° field of view, and that narrower fields of view may be useful in some situations. For example, 30vehicle 110 may employ a first LIDAR system 100 having a first FOV (e.g., about 75°) directed in a forward direction of the vehicle, and optionally a second LIDAR system 100 with a second FOV (e.g., about 75°), directed in a backward direction IL310326/ (e.g., optionally with a lower detection range). It is also noted that one or more LIDAR systems 100 may be characterized by different vertical field of view angles. The term "field of view of the LIDAR system" may broadly include an extent of the observable environment of the LIDAR system in which objects may be detected. Similarly, the term "instantaneous field of view" may broadly include 5an extent of the observable environment in which objects may be detected by the LIDAR system at any given moment. For example, for a scanning LIDAR system, the instantaneous field of view is narrower than the entire FOV of the LIDAR system, and can be moved within the FOV of the LIDAR system in order to enable detection in other parts of the FOV of the LIDAR system. 10Light source 112 of projecting unit 102 is configured to emit light, such as a series of light pulses, towards the environment. Light source 112 may be a laser, such as a solid-state laser or a semiconductor laser or laser diode, or an alternative light source, such as a light-emitting diode (LED). For example, light source 112 may include a plurality of laser diodes coupled together. For example, 15light source 112 may be embodied by a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL), or alternatively by an external cavity diode laser (ECDL). In some examples, light source 112 may emit light at a wavelength between about 650 nm and about 1150 nm, such as between about 800 nm and about 1000 nm, such as between about 850 nm and about 950 nm. In other examples, light source 112 20may emit light at a wavelength between about 1300 nm and about 1600 nm. In some examples, the light emitted by light source 112 may have an average power between about 50 mW and about 500 mW, may have a peak power between about 50 W and about 200 W, and may have a pulse width of between about 2 ns and about 100 ns. Light source 112 may emit light in different formats, such as 25light pulses, frequency modulated, continuous wave (CW), quasi-CW, or any other form corresponding to the particular light source employed. The projection format and other parameters may be changed periodically by light source 112 based on selected factors, such as based on the scanned FOV and/or environmental conditions, such as according to instructions from processing unit 108. 30Light deflector 114 of scanning unit 104 directs emitted light emitted from light source 112 towards at least part of FOV 120, and directs reflected light from at least part of FOV 120 towards sensor 116. For example, scanning unit IL310326/ 104 may include a first (outbound) light deflector 114 for directing light in an outbound direction (also referred to as a transmission direction or "Tx") from light source 112 to FOV 120, and a second (inbound) light deflector 114 for directing light in an inbound direction (also referred to as a reception direction or "Rx") reflected from FOV 120 to sensor 116. Light deflector 114 may be pivoted (i.e., 5rotated about at least one rotational axis while substantially maintaining a center of rotation fixed) in order to scan the field of view. Light deflector 114 may include at least one component or mechanism configured to deviate light from an original path, such as: a mirror, a prism, a controllable lens, a mechanical mirror, mechanical scanning polygons, active diffraction (e.g., controllable LCD), Risley 10prisms, non-mechanical-electro-optical beam steering, polarization grating, optical phased array (OPA), and the like. Light deflector 114 may include a plurality of optical elements, such as at least one reflecting element (e.g., a mirror), and at least one refracting element (e.g., a prism, a lens). Light deflector 114 may be movable, such as to cause a light deviation of differing degrees (e.g., discrete 15degrees, or over a continuous span of degrees). Light deflector 114 may be controllable in different ways, such as to deflect a selected degree amount (e.g., α), to change a deflected angle amount (e.g., Δα), to move a component of light deflector 114 by a certain amount (e.g., M millimeters), and/or to change a rate of change of a deflection angle. Light deflector 114 may be operable to change an 20angle of deflection within a single plane (e.g., θ coordinate), or to change an angle of deflection within two non-parallel planes (e.g., θ and ϕ coordinates). Alternatively or additionally, light deflector 114 may be operable to change an angle of deflection between predetermined settings (e.g., along a predefined scanning route). 25Scanning unit 104 may receive reflections from at least one portion 1of FOV 120 corresponding to an instantaneous position of light deflector 114, broadly referring to a location or spatial position where at least one controlled component of light deflector 114 is situated at an instantaneous point in time or a short time span. An instantaneous position of light deflector 114 may be 30determined with respect to a frame of reference, such as at least one fixed point in the scene. An instantaneous position of light deflector 114 may include movement of at least one component of light deflector 114, such as to a limited IL310326/ degree with respect to a maximum degree of change when scanning FOV 120. For example, a scanning of entire FOV 120 may include changing deflection of light over a first angular range (e.g., 0.30°, and the instantaneous position of light deflector 114 may include angular shifts of the light deflector within a second (narrower) angular range (e.g., 0.05°). An instantaneous position of light deflector 5114 may correspond to at least one spatial position of light deflector 114 during acquisition of reflected light which is processed to provide data for a single point of a point cloud generated by LIDAR system 100. In some examples, an instantaneous position of light deflector 114 may correspond with a fixed position or orientation in which light deflector 114 pauses for a short time during 10illumination of a particular sub-region of FOV 120. In some examples, an instantaneous position of light deflector 114 may correspond with a position or orientation along a scanned range of positions or orientations light deflector 1passes through as part of a repeated scan of FOV 120. Light deflector 114 may be moved such that light deflector 114 is located at a plurality of different 15instantaneous positions during a scanning cycle of FOV 120. In other words, during a period in which a scanning cycle occurs, light deflector 114 may be moved through a series of different instantaneous positions and orientations, and light deflector 114 may reach each different instantaneous position and orientation at a different time during the scanning cycle. 20Sensor 116 of sensing unit 106 detects reflections from one or more objects in FOV 120. Sensor 116 may be any type of sensing device or element capable of measuring properties (e.g., power, frequency, phase, pulse timing, pulse duration) of electromagnetic radiation, and generating an output relating to the measured properties, such as an electronic signal, for subsequent processing 25and/or transmission. Sensor 116 may include multiple sensors, which may be the same or different in at least one sensor characteristic (e.g., sensitivity, resolution, size). For example, sensor 116 may include a combination of sensor types for achieving at least one selected objective, such as: improving detection over a span of ranges or a selected range (e.g., close range); improving a dynamic 30range; improving a temporal response; and improving detection in varying environmental conditions (e.g., heat, cold, rain, snow, fog, low visibility, and the like). For example, sensor 116 may be embodied by a silicon IL310326/ photomultiplier (SiPM) sensor, which is a solid-state single photon sensitive device which may include an array of avalanche photodiodes (APD) or single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) serving as detection elements on a common silicon substrate. In one example, a typical distance between SPADs may be between about 10μm and about 50μm, wherein each SPAD may have a recovery 5time of between about 20ns and about 100ns. Sensor 116 may also include similar photomultipliers from other (e.g., non-silicon) materials. Although a SiPM device works in digital/switching mode, an SiPM may be considered an analog device because all the microcells may be read in parallel, making it possible to generate signals within a dynamic range from a single photon to hundreds and thousands 10of photons detected by the different SPADs. Sensor 116 may generate a single output combined from multiple types of sensors for subsequent processing. The terms "sensor" and "detector" may be used interchangeably herein. Processor 118 receives information from elements of LIDAR system 100 and performs required data processing. For example, processor 118 receives 15signals indicative of reflected light detected by sensor 116 and determines information about one or more objects in FOV 120 (e.g., a distance to an object), such as based on generating a point cloud map. Specifically, processor 118 may process detection results of a sensor that creates temporal information indicative of a period of time between the emission of a light signal (i.e., emitted beam) and 20the time of its detection by the sensor, where this period time may be referred to as a "time of flight" of the light signal. Processor 118 may further receive and provide instructions and may selectively control the operation of system elements. For example, processor 118 may be configured to coordinate the operation of light source 112 with the movement of light deflector 114 in order to scan FOV 120, 25such that during a scanning cycle, each instantaneous position of light deflector 114 may be associated with a particular portion 122 of FOV 120. Processor 118 may constitute any physical device or group of devices having electric circuitry that performs a logic operation on an input or inputs. For example, processor 118 may include one or more integrated circuits (IC), 30including application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), microchips, microcontrollers, microprocessors, all or part of a central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), digital signal processor (DSP), field- IL310326/ programmable gate array (FPGA), server, virtual server, or other circuits suitable for executing instructions or performing logic operations. The instructions executed by the processor may, for example, be pre-loaded into a memory integrated with or embedded into the controller or may be stored in a separate memory. The memory may include: a random access memory (RAM); a read-only 5memory (ROM); a hard disk; an optical disk; a magnetic medium; a flash memory; other permanent, fixed, or volatile memory; or any other mechanism capable of storing instructions. Processor 118 may include multiple processors. Each processor may have a similar construction or the processors may be of differing constructions that are electrically connected or disconnected from each other. For 10example, the processors may be separate circuits or integrated in a single circuit. When more than one processor is used, the processors may be configured to operate independently or collaboratively, and may be co-located or located remotely from each other. The processors may be coupled electrically, magnetically, optically, acoustically, mechanically or by other means that permit 15them to interact. The components of LIDAR system 100 may be based in hardware, software, or combinations thereof. It is appreciated that the functionality associated with each of the components of LIDAR system 100 may be distributed among multiple devices or components, which may reside at a single location or 20at multiple locations. For example, the functionality associated with processor 1may be distributed between a single processing unit or multiple processing units. Processor 118 may be part of a server or a remote computer system accessible over a communications medium or network, such as a cloud computing platform. LIDAR system 100 may optionally include and/or be associated with 25additional components not shown in Figure 1A, for enabling implementation of disclosed subject matter. For example, LIDAR system 100 may include a user interface (not shown) for allowing a user to control various parameters or settings of components of LIDAR system 100, and/or a display device (not shown) for visually displaying information relating to the operation of LIDAR system 100. 30Reference is made to Figure 1B, which is an image of an exemplary output from a single scanning cycle of LIDAR system 100, in accordance with a disclosed embodiment. In this example, scanning unit 104 is incorporated into a IL310326/ right headlight assembly of vehicle 110. Each gray dot in the image corresponds to a respective location in the environment around vehicle 110 determined from reflections detected by sensing unit 106. In addition to location, each gray dot may also be associated with other types of information, such as intensity (e.g., amount of received light from the respective location), reflectivity, proximity to other dots, 5and the like. LIDAR system 100 may generate a plurality of point cloud data entries from detected reflections of multiple scanning cycles of the FOV to enable, for example, determining a point cloud model of the environment around vehicle 110. By processing the generated point cloud data entries of the environment around vehicle 110, a surround-view image may be produced from the point cloud 10model. The point cloud model may be provided to a feature extraction module, which processes the point cloud information to identify a plurality of features. Each feature may include data about different aspects of the point cloud and/or of objects in the environment around vehicle 110 (e.g., cars, trees, people, and roads). Features may have the same resolution of the point cloud model (i.e., 15having the same number of data points, optionally arranged into similar sized 2D arrays), or may have different resolutions. In addition, virtual features, such as a representation of vehicle 110, border lines, or bounding boxes separating regions or objects in the image (e.g., as depicted in Fig. 1B), and icons representing one or more identified objects, may be overlaid on the representation of the point cloud 20model to form a final surround-view image. For example, a symbol of vehicle 1may be overlaid at a center of the surround-view image. A point cloud model represents an exemplary type of depth map, where other forms of 3D scene models or depth images may alternatively be generated in accordance with disclosed embodiments. LIDAR system 100 may generate a 25temporal sequence of depth maps of a scene, in which different depth maps may be generated at different times. Each depth map of a sequence may be associated with a scanning cycle, also referred to herein as a "frame", where each frame is generated at a selected frame rate. LIDAR system 100 may employ a fixed frame rate (e.g., 10 Hz, 25 Hz, 50 Hz), or a dynamic frame rate, and the frame rates of 30different frames in a sequence may be variable. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, the LIDAR system may operate in a multi-beam scanning or multichannel configuration. In particular, IL310326/ LIDAR system 100 may be configured with a plurality of light sources 112 to enable scanning of different portions of a FOV or for scanning the FOV in a differential manner using pulses with different light emission properties (e.g., intensity, wavelength, frequency, power, pulse width, modulation, duty cycle). For example, light source 112 may include a plurality of individual light sources that 5may be characterized by common or different light emission types or properties and may operate in a coordinated manner. For example, light source 112 may be embodied by a multichannel laser emitter configured to emit multiple light beams, where each channel emits a respective light beam having respective light emission properties toward a respective portion of FOV 120. 10Reference is made to Figure 2A, which is a schematic illustration of an exemplary multichannel LIDAR system 100, constructed and operative in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. LIDAR system 100 includes a multichannel laser emitter array 150, a beam splitter 140, an optional collimator 141, a plurality of light deflectors 171, 173, at least one lens 15175, and a multichannel detector array 130. Laser emitter array 150 includes a plurality of laser emitters configured to selectively emit respective light beams. Laser emitter array 150 may include a plurality of active regions and a plurality of inactive regions, where each active region is configured to emit laser light (i.e., corresponding to a laser emitter), and each inactive region does not emit laser 20light. The active regions of the laser array may be separated from each other by one or more inactive regions. Accordingly, laser array 150 includes a plurality of laser-emitting active regions 156 and a plurality of non-laser emitting inactive regions 158, where each active region 156 corresponds to a channel. For example, laser array 150 may be a quad array that includes four active regions 25156 or channels, such as four laser sources configured to respectively emit four laser beams 142, 144, 146, 148. Multiple beams may also be generated by a single emitted laser beam split into multiple beams, such as splitting a single beam emitted by a single emitter. Laser array 150 may generally include any number of active regions or channels or laser sources, such as 8, 16, 32 or 64. Each pair of 30active regions 156 of laser array 150 is separated by at least one inactive region 158. The sizes of active regions 156 and of inactive regions 158 may be equal or unequal. For example, laser array 150 may include an alternating and repeating IL310326/ sequence of active regions 156 or emitters adjacent to one inactive region 158 of equal size. Laser array 150 may be a monolithic array of laser sources that may be fabricated on a single (e.g., monolithic) silicon wafer. Laser array 150 may include one or more types of emitters or laser sources, which may be arranged in a one-dimensional (1D) array or two-dimensional (2D) array. The laser sources 5may be arranged in any type of pattern, such as a square or rectangular pattern, or hexagonally packed arrangement. The light emitted from the laser sources may travel through various optical components associated with the optical path, such as one or more lenses, collimators, and deflectors. In particular, laser array 150 emits multiple laser 10beams 142, 144, 146, 148, which are optionally collimated by at least one collimator 141 before being incident on beam splitter 140. At least some of the emitted beams 142, 144, 146, 148 may be emitted with a divergence, such that respective emitted beams 142, 144, 146, 148 diverge from one another when emerging from laser array 150, where the amount or angle or divergence of 15different beams may be variable. Multiple emitted beams 142, 144, 146, 148 pass through beam splitter 140 and are directed by light deflectors 171, 173 to a FOV 120. Multiple reflected beams 162, 164, 166, 168 reflected from one or more objects in FOV 120 are received at beam splitter 140 and then focused on detector array 130 through lens 175. Reflected beams 162, 164, 166, 168 may optionally 20be directed towards beam splitter 140 by at least one deflector 171, 173. Detector array 130 may include a plurality of detectors configured to selectively detect respective reflected beams 162, 164, 166, 168 reflected from FOV 120, and to generate electrical signals response of received reflected beams for detecting one or more objects in the FOV. Detector array may include a 25plurality of active regions and a plurality of inactive regions, where each active region is configured to detect laser light (i.e., a light sensitive region corresponding to a detector), and each inactive regions does not detect light (i.e., is not light sensitive). The active regions of the detector array may be separated from each other by one or more inactive regions. Accordingly, detector array 130 includes a 30plurality of light-sensitive active regions 132 and a plurality of inactive regions 134, where each active region 132 corresponds to a channel. For example, detector array 130 may be a quad array that includes four active regions 132 or channels, IL310326/ such as four detectors configured to respectively detect four reflected beams 162, 164, 166, 168. Detector array 130 may generally include any number of active regions or channels or detectors, such as 8, 16, 32 or 64. Each pair of active regions 132 of detector array 130 is separated by at least one inactive region 134. The sizes of active regions 132 and of inactive regions 1134 may be equal or 5unequal. For example, detector array 130 may include an alternating and repeating sequence of active regions 132 adjacent to one inactive region 134 of equal size. Detector array 130 may be a monolithic array of detectors that may be fabricated on a single (e.g., monolithic) silicon wafer. Active regions 132 may include one or more types of detectors, which may be arranged in a 10one-dimensional (1D) array or two-dimensional (2D) array. For example, detector array 130 may be embodied by a multichannel SiPM sensor array or SPAD array or an APD array. In an alternative embodiment, the beam splitter may redirect the multiple emitted beams and pass through the multiple reflected beams, rather 15than passing through the multiple emitted beams and redirecting the multiple reflected beams (as depicted in Fig.2A). Reference is made to Figure 2B, which is a schematic illustration of another exemplary multichannel LIDAR system 100, constructed and operative in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. LIDAR system 100 of Fig.2B is generally analogous to LIDAR system 20100 of Fig.2A, with the exception that multiple emitted beams 142, 144, 146, 1emitted by laser array 150 are reflected or redirected by beam splitter 140 towards light deflectors 171, 173, which in turn direct the emitted beams 142, 144, 146, 148 toward FOV 120. Emitted beams 142, 144, 146, 148 may optionally be collimated by at least one collimator 141 before being incident on beam splitter 25140. Multiple reflected beams 162, 164, 166, 168 are reflected from one or more objects in FOV 120 and redirected by light deflectors 171, 173 towards beam splitter 140, which passes through reflected beams 162, 164, 166, 168 to detector array 130 through lens 175. Reflected beams 162, 164, 166, 168 may optionally reach beam splitter 140 without being directed by at least one deflector 171, 173. 30Referring back to Fig.1, scanning unit 104 of LIDAR system 100 may be configured to project a plurality of laser beams emitted by a multichannel laser array towards a FOV 120 of LIDAR system 100, to simultaneously scan the FOV IL310326/ along a plurality of scan lines. Scanning unit 104 may include one or more optical components (e.g., described as light deflector 114 in Fig.1), configured to receive and direct the plurality of laser beams to scan the FOV. For example, scanning unit 104 may include at least one of: a light-transmissive scanning prism; a diffraction scanner; a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) scanner; a single biaxial 5scanning mirror; a pair of single-axis scanning mirrors; a liquid crystal deflector; a MEMS mirror; and the like. Referring to Figs.2A and 2B, multiple emitted beams 142, 144, 146, 148 emitted by laser array 150 and redirected or passed through by beam splitter 140 may be incident on a scanning device (not shown), such as a mechanically actuated biaxial scanning mirror, or a plurality or mirrors (e.g., an 10array of MEMS mirrors). It will be appreciated that such a configuration may provide for multiple beams that are spaced apart and that have an intensity below an eye safety threshold at different ranges. Furthermore, multiple beams projected from a single scanning mirror may be vertically or horizontally arranged relative to one another, which may result in an extended vertical FOV as 15compared to individual beams incident on a mirror or multi-beam configurations that lack a vertical spot orientation in the FOV. Scanning unit 104 may include a biaxial scanning mirror that is rotatable in two axes, such as two substantially orthogonal axes. For example, a first axis of rotation referred to as a "tilt axis" allows for tilting of scanning unit 104 20to direct a plurality of laser beams in a vertical (i.e., up/down) direction of a FOV, and a second axis of rotation referred to as a "scan axis" allows for scanning of scanning unit 104 to direct the plurality of laser beams in a horizontal (i.e., left/right) direction of the FOV. The biaxial scanning mirror may be actuated using a suitable actuation mechanism (e.g., motor driven actuation, magnetic actuation, 25and the like). Rotation of the biaxial scanning mirror about the scanning axis may direct the plurality of laser beams to move along a plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV. Reference is made to Figure 3A, which is an illustration of an exemplary scanning pattern of a field of view obtained using a scanning device, operative in 30accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. A 2D scanning device, such as a mechanically actuated biaxial scanning mirror, directs a plurality of laser beams emitted from a laser emitter array over the illustrated scanning pattern, IL310326/ referenced 180. The y-axis represents a "slow axis amplitude" (e.g., of a tilt axis) and the x-axis represents a "fast axis amplitude" (e.g., of a scan axis) of scanning pattern 180, where the values on the axes are normalized to a maximum amplitude of the scan such that the maximum amplitude is 1. For example, sequentially rotating the scanning device over a scan axis may direct the laser 5beams along a plurality of points in a horizontal direction, e.g., a left to right direction, as represented by scan line 181. Further sequentially rotating the scanning device over a tilt axis may direct the laser beams along a plurality of points in a vertical direction, e.g., an up to down direction. A combination of the aforementioned 2D movements of the scanning unit may generate scanning 10pattern 180, including horizontal scan lines 181, 183, 185. It is noted that horizontal scan lines 181, 183, 185 may not be evenly spaced. For example, to scan certain regions of the FOV, such as the areas above and below a center region, a vertical tilt increment for the scanning device may be selected that is greater than a minimum available tilt increment. The regions above and below the 15center of the scan may be scanned using a vertical tilt increment different from the center of the scan, which may be directed at the horizon. For example, the regions above and below the center of the scan may be scanning using a vertical tilt increment of about 0.6°, which may correspond to an angular size of the entire laser array, thus generating a coarse sampling resolution equal to the laser pitch 20in the laser array. The laser pitch refers to the center-to-center distance between active (light emitting) regions of the laser array. For a selected scan region, such as a region including the center of the scan, a minimum vertical tilt angle can be used to provide more closely spaced scan lines in that region, and thus a higher sampling rate or point cloud resolution in the selected scan region. For example, 25a center region of the FOV (e.g., a region of interest) may be associated with regions near the horizon and may typically include more distant objects or higher densities of objects of interest and may thus be scanned at a higher resolution. In contrast, a top region or bottom region of the FOV may be associated with regions further from the horizon and may typically include more nearby objects or fewer 30objects of interest and may thus be scanned at a lower resolution. The vertical point cloud resolution may depend on the scan line spacing, while the horizontal point cloud resolution may depend on the frequency at which a laser emitter is IL310326/ pulsed as the scanning device scans along each horizontal scan line, where a higher pulse frequency corresponds to a higher potential horizontal resolution of the generated point cloud. When the scanning device receives a plurality of laser beams emitted by a laser array (e.g., laser array 150), and optionally directed by a beam splitter 5(e.g., beam splitter 140), a first rotation of the scanning device about a scan axis may produce a plurality of horizontal scan lines traversing a first set of locations, and a second rotation of the scanning device about a tilt axis may shift the horizontal scan line vertically, thereby producing a second set of scan lines traversing a second set of locations vertically spaced from the first set of locations. 10A rate of rotation of the scanning device about the scan axis may be faster than a rate of rotation about the tilt axis. Reference is made to Figure 3B, which is an illustration of another exemplary scanning pattern of a field of view obtained using a scanning device, operative in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. A 15scanning device directs a plurality of laser beams over the illustrated scanning pattern, generally referenced 190. The y-axis represents a vertical scanning angle of scanning pattern 190 (depicted in 5-degree increments) and the x-axis represents a horizontal scanning angle of scanning pattern 190 (depicted in degree increments). A first rotation of the scanning device about a scan axis 20directs the emitted laser beams along a plurality of horizontal scan lines 191, 193, 195. A second rotation of the scanning device about a tilt axis causes a vertical displacement of horizontal scan lines 191, 193, 195 by a distance ΔH. The scanning device may be capable of rotating about multiple rotation axes, or may alternatively include one or more optical components (e.g., mirrors 25or deflectors), each of which is respectively rotatable about only a single rotation axis. For example, the scanning device may include a first single-axis scanning mirror and a second single-axis scanning mirror, such that the first single axis scanning mirror receives a plurality of laser beams from a laser emitter array and directs the laser beams to the second single-axis scanning mirror which directs 30the laser beams towards the FOV. For example, the first single-axis scanning mirror rotates about a first rotation axis (e.g., a scan axis) to move the laser beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV, and the second single-axis IL310326/ scanning mirror rotates about a second rotation axis (e.g., a tilt axis) to displace the laser beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines, to generate a scanning pattern such as patterns 180, 190. For example, referring back to Figs.2A, 2B, a first single-axis scanning mirror may be embodied 5by first light deflector 171 and a second single-axis scanning mirror may be embodied by second light deflector 173. First deflector 171 may be rotatable about a first axis, such as a horizontal axis or scan axis, in a left-right direction, such that multiple beams 142, 144, 146, 148 generate horizontal scan lines, such as scan lines 191, 193, 195 (Fig.3B). Second deflector 173 may be rotatable about a 10second axis perpendicular to the first axis, such as a vertical axis or tilt axis, in an up-down direction, such that horizontal scan lines 191, 193, 195 are shifted by a vertical displacement ΔH. The scanning device may rotate about a scan axis and/or a tilt axis to project laser beams over a desired FOV. Reflected beams from the FOV may be 15received at a detector to detect the presence of one or more objects in the FOV. The FOV of LIDAR system 100 may have a vertical angular dimension of between degrees and 90 degrees, and the FOV may have a horizontal angular dimension of between 20 degrees and 140 degrees. The extent of the FOV may depend on several factors, such as the maximum rotation span of the scanning device about 20respective scan and tilt axes, a divergence angle of the laser beams, and the angle between the plurality of laser beams projected from the scanning device. Scanning of the field of view may be implemented repeatedly over a given frame scan rate to continuously detect changing positions of an objects in the FOV. For example, the FOV of LIDAR system 100 may be scanned at a frame 25scan rate of between 5 Hz and 40 Hz, such as 20 Hz (i.e., 20 times per second). The scan rate may be adjustable in accordance with application requirements. The frame scan rate may define at least one angular dimension size of a laser beam spot of a respective projected laser beam. For example, a plurality of laser beams projected from the scanning device to the FOV may result in corresponding 30reflected beams, each forming a beam spot having an angular size, such as 0.degrees x 0.11 degrees. The vertical arrangement of the beam spots may depend on the configuration of the emitters of the laser emitter array, where the distance IL310326/ between adjacent emitters may correspond to spacing between the reflected beam spots. For example, a laser beam spot may have a vertical angular dimension of 0.1 degrees, and may be spaced apart from an adjacent beam spot by about 0.2 degrees (i.e., corresponding to a 2:1 ratio of inactive regions to active regions of the laser emitter array). If the laser array includes 16 channels, an 5overall vertical pattern (also referred to herein as a "comb") of projected beams may occupy an angular height of about 4.6 degrees. This comb may be steered horizontally across the width of the FOV by the scanning device, where the horizontal resolution may be determined by the scanning speed and by the laser pulse rate. When the horizontal limit is reached, the scanning device may be 10incremented vertically (e.g., rotated about the tilt axis) to continue horizontal scanning of the FOV along a new group of horizontal scan lines. It is appreciated that a vertical comb pattern scanned horizontally over the FOV represents an exemplary scanning configuration, and other embodiments may include a horizontal comb that is scanned vertically over the FOV, such as using a 15horizontally oriented laser array. The rotation of the scanning device in at least one axis may be controlled to provide a variable resolution scan. For example, in scanning pattern 190, for regions 192 and 194 at the top and bottom of the scan, respectively, the scanning device may be rotated about the vertical tilt axis by an angular increment 20at least as large as the angular dimension of the laser array. However, in region 196 at the center of the scan (e.g., between +/- 5 degrees), which may include the horizon, the scanning device may be rotated about the vertical tilt axis by an angular increment less than the angular dimension of the laser array. For example, a laser array having 8 channels, where the angular width of each emitted 25laser beam is 0.1º and the angular width of the spacing between adjacent emitted laser beams is 0.2º, defines a total angular dimension of 2.4º. For such a laser array, the vertical rotation of the scanning device in top scan region 192 and bottom scan region 194 may be in angular increments greater than 2.4º, while the vertical rotation in center scan region 196 may be in angular increments less than 302.4º to provide a higher scan resolution in center scan region 196. A multichannel LIDAR system 100 may include a plurality of detectors configured to emit electrical signals in response to multiple reflected beams IL310326/ received from the FOV. For example, detector array 130 (Fig.2A, 2B) includes a plurality of detectors, each detector operative for detecting a selected reflected beam 162, 164, 166, 168 received from FOV 120. Each detector corresponds to an active region, which can also be considered an individual "pixel", which is separated from an adjacent active region by one or more inactive regions of 5variable spacing. The terms "detector", "active region (of a detector)" and "pixel" are used interchangeably herein to refer to a discrete unit of a detector array configured to generate a discrete electrical signal response of an incident reflection. Reference is made to Figures 4A, 4B, 4C. Fig. 4A is an illustration of a first exemplary detector array 200, Fig. 4B is an illustration of a second exemplary 10detector array 210, and Fig. 4C is an illustration of a third exemplary detector array 220, constructed and operative in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Each of detector arrays 200, 210, 220 is a monolithic 1D array that includes N active regions labelled "n" (n1 to nN) and N-1 inactive regions labelled "m" (m1 to mN-1), where N may be any desired number (e.g., 4, 8, 16, 32 ,64). 15Each pair of active regions is separated by a respective inactive region having a selected width. Detector array 200 includes alternating and repeating sequences of active regions 202 spaced apart by one inactive region 204 of equal size to each active region 202, defining a 1:1 size ratio of active to inactive regions. Detector array 210 includes alternating and repeating sequences of active regions 20212 spaced apart by a respective inactive region 214 having twice the width of an active region 212, such that the size ratio of active to inactive regions is 1:2. Detector array 220 includes alternating and repeating sequences of active regions 222 spaced apart by a respective inactive region 224 having five times the width of an active region 212, such that the size ratio of active to inactive regions is 1:5. 25In general, the spacing between active regions (or the relative width of an inactive region) of a detector array of a multichannel LIDAR system of the present disclosure may be any desired number. When receiving a plurality of reflected beams from the FOV, each reflected beam may form a respective beam spot on one or more active regions 30of the detector array. For example, referring to Fig.4A, detector array 200 includes an exemplary beam spot 205 incident on multiple active regions 202 (e.g., active regions n2, n3) of detector array 200. As a result, multiple active regions 202 may IL310326/ generate respective signals corresponding to a detected object from which the multiple received beams associated with beam spot 205 were reflected. The multiple detection signals may provide an increased resolution for a region of the detected object, where each active region 202 of detector array 200 represents a distinct pixel of a subregion within the region of the detected object. 5A ratio of a distance between active regions of a detector and a distance between beam spots incident on the detector, may be a predetermined value. For example, a distance between beam spots formed by laser beams emitted from a laser array of LIDAR system 100 (e.g., laser array 150), i.e., corresponding to a distance between beam spots incident on a detector array of 10LIDAR system 100, may be a predetermined multiple of a distance or spacing between active regions of the detector array (e.g., active regions 202 of detector array 200), such as a multiple of: 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5. An angular dimension (e.g., angular width or height) of each beam spot (formed by emitted laser beams and/or reflected laser beams incident on the detector array) may also be a predetermined 15multiple of an angular dimension of an active region of the detector array, such as a multiple: of 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5. In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, light is directed toward FOV 120 of LIDAR system 100 using a selected illumination protocol and/or scanning protocol, such as a light emission protocol with emitted beams 20having alternating energy levels. Such an illumination protocol may be useful for maintaining object detection capabilities regardless of blooming effects, such as to enable discriminating between activated pixels resulting from blooming and those resulting from a real object reflection. Blooming may occur when high intensity reflections are received from one or more highly reflective and/or nearby 25objects, such as a retroreflector. The high intensity reflections can overload the detector such that excess photons overflow to neighboring detectors of the detector array, causing false readings. Blooming may be manifested as visual artifacts in the generated point cloud model, where the point cloud of an object expands beyond the contours of the actual shape and size of the object, such that 30a bright halo may appear around the object and potentially obstructing other objects in the immediate vicinity. Blooming may significantly hinder the ability to detect and determine characteristics of high reflectivity objects and surrounding IL310326/ areas, such as for interpreting an environment around vehicle 110. Blooming effects may be induced by several factors, including optical phenomena, such as diffraction caused by limited apertures of an optical component (e.g., deflectors or mirrors of the scanning device), or stray light scattered inside an optical component (e.g., resulting from a strong reflection and reflected off of an inner 5surface within the LIDAR housing), as well as by electronic phenomena, such as leakage or overflow of photodetector electrons between different channels or active regions of the detector array (i.e., electrical crosstalk). Reference is made to Figures 5A and 5B. Figure 5A is a schematic illustration of an exemplary light emission protocol with uniform energy levels and 10emitted beams incident entirely on an object. Figure 5B is a schematic illustration of another exemplary light emission protocol with uniform energy levels and emitted beams incident partially on an object. In the illustrated scenarios, generally referenced 240 (Fig.5A) and 245 (Fig.5B), a plurality of beams is simultaneously emitted from respective emitters of a multichannel laser array (not 15shown) at a plurality of time points, each emitted beam having an individually controlled energy level. Referring to scenario 240, at a first time t1, the laser array simultaneously emits a first group of emitted beams including a first beam 241A and a second beam 241B, both beams 241A, 241B having a high energy level. At a second time t2, the laser array simultaneously emits a second group of emitted 20beams including a first beam 242A and a second beam 242B, both beams 242A, 242B having a high energy level. Each of first group of emitted beams 241A, 24B and second group of emitted beams 242A, 242B is incident on a high reflectivity object 235, and corresponding reflections are received at a multichannel detector array 250. A first beam spot 261A corresponding to a reflection of first emitted 25beam 241A emitted at time t1 is received at first detector 252 of detector array 250, and a second beam spot 261B corresponding to a reflection of second emitted beam 241B emitted at time t1 is received at second detector 254 of detector array 250. Detector response signal 271A represents a response signal of detector 252 respective of beam spot 261A, and detector response signal 271B 30represents a response signal of detector 254 respective of beam spot 261B. A first beam spot 262A corresponding to a reflection of first emitted beam 242A emitted at time t2 is received at first detector 252, and a second beam spot 262B IL310326/ corresponding to a reflection of second emitted beam 242B emitted at time t2 is received at second detector 254. Detector response signal 272A represents a response signal of detector 252 respective of beam spot 262A, and detector response signal 272B represents a response signal of detector 254 respective of beam spot 262B. Since all emitted beams 241A, 241B and 242A, 242B are 5incident on object 235, all of corresponding beam spots 261A, 261B and 262A, 262B represent valid reflections from object 235, even though a portion of beam spots 261A, 261B and 262A, 262B (or residual energy of the respective reflections) may oversaturate and leak into neighboring detectors due to the high energy level of emitted beams 241A, 241B and 242A, 242B. 10Referring to scenario 245, at a first time t1, the laser array simultaneously emits a first group of emitted beams including a first beam 246A from a first emitter and a second beam 246B from a second emitter, both beams 246A, 246B having a high energy level. First emitted beam 246A is not incident on object 235, whereas second emitted beam 246B is incident on object 235, such 15that a region between first beam 246A and second beam 246B defines an edge of object 235. At a second time t2, the laser array simultaneously emits a second group of emitted beams including a first beam 247A and a second beam 247B, both beams 247A, 247B having a high energy level. First emitted beam 247A is not incident on object 235, whereas second emitted beam 247B is incident on 20object 235, such that a region between first beam 247A and second beam 247B defines an edge of object 235. Multichannel detector array 250 receives reflections from object 235. In particular, first emitted beam 246A emitted at time t1 is not incident on object 235 so no corresponding reflection is received at detector 252 of detector array 250, whereas second emitted beam 246B emitted 25at time t1 is incident on object 235 so a beam spot 266B corresponding to a reflection of second emitted beam 246B is received at second detector 254 of detector array 250. Detector response signal 276A is a response signal of detector 252 at time t1, and detector response signal 276B is a response signal of detector 254 at time t1. Detector response signal 276B results from a reflection of emitted 30beam 246B from object 235, corresponding to beam spot 266B. However, detector response signal 276A results from oversaturation of detector 254 where a portion of the reflection of second emitted beam 246B leaks or overflows into IL310326/ detector 252 due to the high energy level of emitted beam 246B, such that detector response signal 276A does not represent a valid reflection from object 235 (i.e., since emitted beam 246A is not incident on object 235). Similarly, first emitted beam 247A emitted at time t2 is not incident on object 235 so no corresponding reflection is received at detector 252, whereas second emitted 5beam 247B emitted at time t2 is incident on object 235 so a beam spot 267B corresponding to a reflection of second emitted beam 247B is received at second detector 254. Detector response signal 277B results from a reflection of second emitted beam 247B from object 235, whereas detector response signal 277A results from oversaturation of detector 254 into detector 252 due to the high 10energy level of emitted beam 247B. Since only emitted beams 246B, 247B are incident on object 235, only response signals 276B, 277B (corresponding to respective beam spots 266B, 267B) represent valid reflections from object 235. However, response signals 276A, 277A represent oversaturations of neighboring detector 254 where the received reflections (beam spots 266B, 267B) leak or 15overflow into detector 252 (due to the high energy level of respective emitted beams 246B, 247B) and do not represent valid reflections from object 235. As a result, determination of an edge of object 235 in the generated point cloud may be hindered when employing a light emission protocol with uniform energy levels as in scenario 245. It is noted that such oversaturation of detector 254 into 20detector 252 from high energy emitted beams 246B, 247B (and consequent invalid response signals 276A, 277A) is a function of the high reflectivity of object 235, whereas an alternate object having low reflectivity would not result in overflow reflections into neighboring detectors even for high energy emitted beams, and thus not result in corresponding invalid response signals. 25By implementing an illumination protocol with alternating energy levels, invalid response signals resulting from leakage of high intensity reflections from neighboring detectors may be avoided. Alternating energy levels of emitted beams pulse may be achieved by various means. For example, a low energy beam may have a low radiant intensity or low radiant power or level of light flux, 30and a high energy beam may have a high radiant intensity or high radiant power or level of light flux. Alternatively or additionally, a low energy beam may have a low peak power, and a high energy beam may have a high peak power. Further IL310326/ alternatively, a low energy beam may represent a negative emission or no pulse emission, and a high energy beam may represent a positive emission (i.e., corresponding to an "ON/OFF" or "1/0" scheme). In general, differential beam energies (e.g., a low energy level or high energy level) may be provided by modifying one or more properties of an emitted beam, including but not limited to: 5an intensity; a peak power; a beam duration; an emission operating mode (e.g., ON/OFF); an emission modulation; a timing; a wavelength; a frequency; a number of pulses in a pulse sequence; and the like. An ON/OFF scheme may have the drawback of reducing the pixel rate (i.e., frames per second multiplied by pixels per frame) of the LIDAR system, since the energy beam in the OFF state will 10produce no measurements. A different differential beam energy emission, e.g., low vs. high energy, may require increased complexity when evaluating the response signals of each detector of the detector array, accounting for the difference in emission energy when analyzing the reflection signal. For example, analysis of the reflection signal may be based on varying criteria, such as a 15different threshold for distinguishing between a positive and negative detection, depending on the intensity or energy level of the corresponding emission. The signal analysis may include evaluating properties of the object causing the reflection, such as reflectivity or grazing angle. In some embodiments, the LIDAR system may include a pulsed laser 20diode driver, which may be configured to drive laser emission of a laser array to produce emitted beams having alternating energy levels. For example, the disclosed pulsed laser diode may include one or more electronic components or circuitry that may allow the laser diode to generate a plurality of pulses of laser light. This circuitry may constitute a pulsed laser diode driver that may be 25configured to activate the laser diode to generate the plurality of pulses of laser light. It is contemplated that the pulsed laser diode driver may be a resonant laser driver based on boost DC/DC topology that may not need a dedicated high-voltage supply. It is also contemplated that instead of a high-voltage supply, the disclosed laser driver may include an inductor that may be periodically energized 30or deenergized to provide the requisite high-voltage for generating the plurality of laser light pulses. The pulsed laser diode driver may include at least one switching circuit connected to at least one laser diode, the laser diode being configured to IL310326/ generate at least one light pulse. For example, the disclosed laser diode driver may include an electronic circuit, such as a switching circuit, connected to a voltage power supply. The switching circuit may be connected to at least one laser diode and may be configured to deliver high-voltage pulses to the laser diode to generate at least one pulse of laser light. 5Reference is made to Figures 6A, 6B and 6C. Figure 6A is a schematic illustration of an exemplary illumination protocol with alternating energy levels and emitted beams incident entirely on an object, operative in accordance with a further embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 6B is a schematic illustration of another exemplary illumination protocol with alternating energy levels and 10emitted beams incident partially on an object, operative in accordance with a further embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 6C is a schematic illustration of a further exemplary illumination protocol with alternating energy levels and emitted beams incident partially on an object for an extended duration, operative in accordance with a further embodiment of the present disclosure. In the 15illustrated scenarios, generally referenced 280 (Fig.6A), 285 (Fig.6B), and 3(Fig.6C), a plurality of beams is simultaneously emitted from respective emitters of a multichannel laser array (not shown) at a plurality of time points, each emitted beam having an individually controlled energy level. Referring to scenario 280, at a first time t1, the laser array simultaneously emits a first group of emitted beams, 20including a first beam 281A having a low energy level, and a second beam 281B having a high energy level. At a second time t2, the laser array simultaneously emits a second group of emitted beams, including a first beam 282A having a high energy level, and a second beam 282B having a low energy level. Both groups of emitted beams 281A, 281B and 282A, 282B are incident on a high reflectivity 25object 235, and corresponding reflections are received at a multichannel detector array 250. First detector 252 of detector array 250 receives a reflection of first emitted beam 281A emitted at time t1 forming a first beam spot 291A and generates a corresponding response signal 301A reflecting a positive detection (i.e., high signal value), and second detector 254 of detector array 250 receives a 30reflection of second emitted beam 281B emitted at time t1 forming a second beam spot 291B and generates a corresponding response signal 301B reflecting a positive detection (i.e., high signal value). It is noted that second beam spot 291B IL310326/ may have a higher energy (depicted as a larger size for illustrative purposes) than first beam spot 291A (depicted as a smaller size for illustrative purposes) due to the higher energy level of second emitted beam 281B relative to first emitted beam 281A. Nevertheless, the generated response signals 301A, 301B may be substantially similar, as both reflections are sufficient to trigger a positive detection 5in respective detectors 252, 254 (i.e., having an intensity above a minimum detection threshold). Similarly, first detector 252 receives a reflection of first emitted beam 282A emitted at time t2 forming a first beam spot 292A and generates a corresponding response signal 302A, and second detector 2receives a reflection of second emitted beam 282B emitted at time t2 forming a 10second beam spot 292B and generates a corresponding response signal 302B, where the generated response signals 302A, 302B may be substantially similar even though first beam spot 292A may have a higher energy level than second beam spot 292B due to the higher energy level of first emitted beam 282A relative to second emitted beam 282B. Since all emitted beams 281A, 281B and 282A, 15282B are incident on object 235, all of corresponding beams spots 291A, 291B and 292A, 292B represent valid reflections from object 235, even though a portion of high energy reflections (i.e., respective of beam spots 291B and 292A) may leak or overflow into neighboring detectors due to the high energy level of the respective emitted beams (i.e., beams 281B and 282A). In contrast to the uniform 20energy level illumination protocol of scenario 240 where substantially all of the received reflections may cause detector oversaturation (as all the emitted beams have high energy level), only some (e.g., half) of the received reflections may result in detector oversaturation due to the low energy level of some emitted beams 281A, 282B in the alternating energy level illumination protocol of scenario 25280. Referring to scenario 285, at a first time t1, a first emitter of the laser array emits a first beam 286A having a low energy level, and a second emitter of the laser array simultaneously emits a second beam 286B having a high energy level. At a second time t2, the first emitter emits a first beam 287A having a high 30energy level, and the second emitter emits a second beam 287B having a low energy level. Both of first emitted beams 286A, 287A are not incident on object 235, whereas second emitted beams 286B, 287B are both incident on object 235, IL310326/ such that a region between first beams 286A, 287A and second beams 286B, 287B defines an edge of object 235. More generally, first emitted beam 286A is incident on a first FOV region and second emitted beam 286B is incident on a second FOV region that is neighboring or adjacent to the first FOV region. Correspondingly, first emitted beam 287A is incident on a third FOV region that is 5adjacent to the first FOV region, and second emitted beam 287B is incident on a fourth FOV region that is adjacent to the first FOV region and the third FOV region. The term "adjacent" in this context may be defined in terms of angular distance between the adjacent regions, or the absence of additional regions therebetween (e.g., such that there are substantially no gaps between adjacent regions, or such 10that there are no illuminated regions between adjacent regions). For example, adjacent FOV regions may be defined such that a generated point cloud includes no points (pixels) in between the points of adjacent regions. In another example, adjacent FOV regions may be defined such that adjacent regions may be illuminated in sequence, with no regions illuminated between illumination of the 15first region of the adjacent regions and the second region of the adjacent regions. Multichannel detector array 250 receives reflections from object 235. Particularly, no reflections are received at first detector 252 since first emitted beams 286A, 287A are not incident on object 235, whereas second detector 254 receives reflections of second emitted beams 286B, 287B that are incident on object 235, 20the reflections forming respective beam spots 296B, 297B at respective times t1, t2. Second detector 254 generates respective response signals 306B, 307B corresponding to respective beam spots 296B, 297B formed by reflections of respective emitted beams 286B, 287B from object 235. It is noted that beam spot 296B is characterized by a higher energy level than beam spot 297B due to the 25higher energy level of emitted beam 286B at time t1 relative to emitted beam 287B at time t2, yet the generated response signals 306B, 307B may be substantially similar, as both reflections are sufficient to trigger a positive detection in detector 254. First detector 252 generates a first response signal 306A at time t1 reflecting a positive detection (i.e., high signal value) resulting from saturation of the 30reflection of high energy level emitted beam 286B leaking into first detector 252, such that response signal 306A does not represent a valid reflection from object 235. Accordingly, the invalid response signal 306A may hinder determination of IL310326/ an edge of object 235 in the generated point cloud at time t1. However, first detector 252 generates a second response signal 307A reflecting a negative detection (i.e., low signal value) at time t2, since the low energy level reflection of emitted beam 287B at time t2 does not saturate or overflow into first detector 252. Accordingly, detector response signal 307A represents a valid negative detection 5that can be used to ascertain an edge of object 235 (i.e., between scene regions corresponding to detectors 252, 254). Thus, a sequence of alternations generates a signal pattern that indicates that certain response signals are invalid (e.g., 306A) while others are valid (e.g., 307A), enabling determination of valid and invalid response signals (in contrast to the uniform energy level illumination protocol of 10scenario 245). By sequentially applying an alternating energy level illumination protocol for an extended sequence, valid detections may be obtained for at least a portion of an emission/reflection sequence, allowing for determination of an edge of an object over the sequence. Referring to scenario 310, the laser array 15emits a plurality of emitted beams in an alternating energy level pattern for an extended duration. A first emitter emits a low energy beam 311A at time t1, followed by a high energy beam 312A at time t2, followed by a low energy beam 313A at time t3, followed by a high energy beam 314A at time t4, and so forth in a recurring pattern. A second emitter emits a high energy beam 311B at time t1, 20followed by a low energy beam 312B at time t2, followed by a high energy beam 313B at time t3, followed by a low energy beam 314B at time t4, and so forth in a recurring pattern. The first sequence of beams (311A…316A) emitted by the first emitter are not incident on object 235, whereas the second sequence of beams (311B…316B) emitter by the second emitter are incident on object 235, such that 25a region therebetween defines an edge of object 235. A first detector 252 of multichannel detector array 250 generates a series of response signals corresponding to reflections of the first sequence of emitted beams (311A…316A), the response signals reflecting alternating invalid positive detections (resulting from leakage or overflow of adjacent high intensity 30reflections) and valid negative detections (where no leakage or overflow occurs from adjacent low intensity reflections), such that the selected valid detections may ensure a proper edge determination. In particular, first detector 252 IL310326/ generates a first response signal 331A at time t1 reflecting an invalid positive detection (i.e., high signal value) resulting from saturation of the reflection of high energy level emitted beam 311B of second detector 254 leaking into first detector 252 and does not represent a valid reflection from object 235. Similar invalid response signals 333A, 335A are generated at time t3 and time t5, respectively, 5resulting from saturation of respective reflections of high energy level emitted beams 313B, 315B. First detector 252 generates a further sequence of valid response signals, including response signal 332A at time t2, response signal 334A at time t4, and response signal 336A at time t6, each of which reflect a negative detection (i.e., low signal value) since the respective low intensity reflections of 10respective low energy emitted beams 312B, 314B, 316B does not saturate into first detector 252. Thus, response signals 332A, 334A, 336A, along with the sequence of valid response signals 331B….316B generated by second detector 254, can be used to determine an edge of object 235 in the generated point cloud. The valid response signals may also be used to determine updated object 15parameters of object 235 (e.g., size, height, shape, type of object), following a previous determination of object parameters based on invalid response signals. While the above scenarios illustrate a vertically oriented laser array scanned horizontally over a FOV, other embodiments may employ alternate scanning configurations, such as a horizontally oriented laser array scanned 20vertically over the FOV. Consistent with the present disclosure, a LIDAR system may be configured to detect objects by scanning the environment of the LIDAR system. The term "scanning the environment of LIDAR system" broadly includes illuminating the field of view or a portion of the field of view of the LIDAR system. 25In one example, scanning the environment of the LIDAR system may be achieved by moving or pivoting a light deflector to deflect light in differing directions toward different parts of the field of view. In another example, scanning the environment of the LIDAR system may be achieved by changing a position (i.e., location and/or orientation) of a sensor with respect to the field of view. In another example, 30scanning the environment of the LIDAR system may be achieved by changing a position (i.e., location and/or orientation) of a light source with respect to the field of view. In yet another example, scanning the environment of the LIDAR system IL310326/ may be achieved by changing the positions of at least one light source and of at least one sensor to move rigidly with respect to the field of view (i.e., the relative distance and orientation of the sensor and of the light source remains). Consistent with disclosed embodiments, the LIDAR system may include at least one scanning unit with at least one light deflector configured to 5deflect light from the light source in order to scan the field of view. The term "light deflector" includes any mechanism or module which is configured to make light deviate from its original path; for example, a mirror, a prism, controllable lens, a mechanical mirror, mechanical scanning polygons, active diffraction (e.g. controllable LCD), Risley prisms, non-mechanical-electro-optical beam steering, 10polarization grating, optical phased array (OPA), and the like. In one embodiment, a light deflector may include a plurality of optical components, such as at least one reflecting element (e.g., a mirror), at least one refracting element (e.g., a prism, a lens), and so on. In one example, the light deflector may be movable, to cause light to deviate to differing degrees (e.g., discrete degrees, or over a 15continuous span of degrees). The light deflector may optionally be controllable in different ways (e.g., deflect to a degree α, change deflection angle by Δα, move a component of the light deflector by M millimeters, change speed in which the deflection angle changes). In addition, the light deflector may optionally be operable to change an angle of deflection within a single plane (e.g., θ coordinate). 20The light deflector may optionally be operable to change an angle of deflection within two non-parallel planes (e.g., θ and ϕ coordinates). Alternatively, or in additionally, the light deflector may optionally be operable to change an angle of deflection between predetermined settings (e.g., along a predefined scanning route) or otherwise. With respect to the use of light deflectors in LIDAR systems, 25it is noted that a light deflector may be used in the outbound direction (also referred to as transmission direction, or TX) to deflect light from the light source to at least a part of the field of view. However, a light deflector may also be used in the inbound direction (also referred to as reception direction, or RX) to deflect light from at least a part of the field of view to one or more light sensors. 30In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, light is directed toward FOV 120 of LIDAR system 100 using a shifted illumination protocol, such that the emitted beams and reflected beams are shifted or spatially IL310326/ displaced in at least one scanning cycle (i.e., frame), such as by applying a modified scanning pattern. For example, a second group of (one or more) scan lines may be displaced relative to a first group of (one or more) scan lines, the spatial displacement being transverse to the scanning direction (e.g., in a vertical direction for a vertical comb pattern scanned horizontally over the FOV), such that 5a portion of the FOV is illuminated by a first emitted beam in the first group of scan lines and the same FOV portion is illuminated by a second emitted beam in the second group of scan lines. The scan lines may be spatially displaced across successive frames in a sequence of frames, such that at least one frame in the sequence defines a displacement across the scanning direction relative to at least 10another frame in the sequence. A shifted illumination protocol may include at least one variable resolution scanning cycle for a sequence of frames captured with a reduced frame rate. Such an illumination protocol may be useful for maintaining object detection capabilities even when subject to blooming effects, such as to enable discriminating between activated pixels resulting from blooming and those 15resulting from a real object reflection, and thus to differentiate between valid and invalid detector response signals. Reference is made to Figure 7A, which is an illustration of an exemplary illumination protocol where a region of interest in the scene is partially obscured, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the 20illustrated scenario 347, a target object 342 is located in proximity to a highly reflective object 345 (referred to as a "retroreflector") in a FOV 340. The FOV 3is scanned with a first scanning pattern in which at least a portion of target object 342 is mutually illuminated with retroreflector 345 in a common frame 352. In particular, target object 342 and retroreflector 345 are illuminated by a mutual 25group of simultaneous light emissions from one or more emitters (or active emission regions) of a vertically oriented multichannel laser array during a part of a scanning cycle. One or more detectors (or active regions) of the detector array receiving reflections from object portion 343 of target object 342 is subject to blooming effects from oversaturation of one or more neighboring detectors 30receiving reflections from retroreflector 345, resulting in blooming artifacts 3that obscures object portion 343 in the point cloud map of frame 352. If FOV 3is scanned at the same scanning pattern and frame alignments (which includes IL310326/ bloomed frame 352), then target object 342 may be partially obscured in the detected frames, regardless of the number of frames that are captured. It is noted that a mutual illumination of target object 342 and retroreflector 345 in a common frame may occur with object 342 and retroreflector 345 being at various spatial positions and alignments relative to one another. For 5example, in a first scenario 361, target object 342 is located at a substantially same range or depth as retroreflector 345 (e.g., in a common vertical plane) and at a different and nonoverlapping location or spatial position thereto (e.g., different heights) and are illuminated by a mutual light emission 358 in a common frame, as illustrated in Figure 8A (front view) and Figure 8B (side view). In another 10scenario 362, target object 342 is located at a different range than retroreflector 345 (e.g., retroreflector 345 is positioned further away from the LIDAR system then object 342) and at different nonoverlapping locations (e.g., at different heights) and are illuminated by mutual light emission 358 in a common frame, as illustrated in Figure 8C (front view) and Figure 8D (side view). In a third scenario 15363, target object 342 is located at a different range than retroreflector 345 and at overlapping locations or spatial positions (e.g., such that a portion of object 342 is at a substantially same height as a portion of retroreflector 345) and are illuminated by mutual light emission 358 in a common frame, as illustrated in Figure 8E (front view) and Figure 8F (side view). 20Reference is made to Figure 7B, which is an illustration of another exemplary illumination protocol with a vertically shifted illumination relative to Fig.7A, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the illustrated scenario 348, the FOV 340, including target object 342 in proximity to retroreflector 345, is scanned with a second scanning pattern that includes 25vertically offset or shifted frames in relation to bloomed frame 352 of Fig.7A, such that object portion 343 is no longer mutually illuminated with retroreflector 345 in a common frame of the shifted frames. In a first vertically offset frame 354 (e.g., displaced upwards relative to frame 352), a retroreflector 345 is illuminated by an emitter array but a target object 342 is not illuminated, such that the resultant 30offset frame 354 includes blooming artifacts 351 resulting from retroreflector 345. In a second vertically offset frame 356 subsequent to first vertically offset frame 354 (e.g., displaced upwards relative to a subsequent frame of bloomed frame IL310326/ 352), target object 342 is illuminated by the emitter array but retroreflector 345 is not illuminated. As a result, detectors receiving reflections from object portion 3in frame 356 are not subject to blooming effects from retroreflector 345 (reflections from which are not received by neighboring detectors in the same frame 356), and thus object portion 343 appears visible in the corresponding point cloud map of 5frame 356. Target object 342 and retroreflector 345 may be at different spatial positions and alignments relative to one another and be illuminated separately in distinct frames using a vertically shifted illumination protocol. For example, in one scenario 364, target object 342 is located at a substantially same range (e.g., in a 10common vertical plane) and at a different and nonoverlapping location (e.g., a different height) as retroreflector 345, which is illuminated by a first light emission 359 in a first frame that does not include target object 342, as illustrated in Figure 8G (front view) and Figure 8H (side view). In another scenario 365, target object 342 is located at a different range (e.g., in a different vertical plane) and at a 15different and nonoverlapping location (e.g., a different height) as retroreflector 345, which is illuminated by a first light emission 359 in a first frame that does not include target object 342, as illustrated in Figure 8I (front view) and Figure 8J (side view). Accordingly, image pixels (i.e., of a point cloud map) that are obscured 20in certain frames (such as object portion 343 in frame 352) may be supplemented using information obtained in other frames having a relative offset (such as frame 356), such as during a subsequent image processing stage. Reference is made to Figure 9, which is a sequence of frames of an exemplary point cloud map obtained using the vertically shifted illumination protocol of Fig.7B, operative in 25accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In a first frame 371, an object 375 (i.e., a person) and a retroreflector are mutually illuminated such that the illuminated region ends substantially near a bottom edge of the retroreflector. As a result, blooming artifacts extend along an upper portion of object 375 that is partially obscured in frame 371, whereas a lower portion of object 375 (e.g., 30including the legs of the imaged person) appears visible. In a second frame 372, which is shifted vertically relative to first frame 371, the retroreflector and object 375 are mutually illuminated such that the illuminated region extends substantially IL310326/ beyond the retroreflector boundaries. As a result, blooming artifacts extend along an upper and a lower portion of object, such that object 375 is substantially fully obscured in frame 372. In a third frame 373, which is shifted vertically relative to second frame 372, the retroreflector and object 375 are mutually illuminated such that the illuminated region ends substantially near a top edge of the retroreflector. 5As a result, object 375 in frame 373 appears partially obscured, however an upper portion of object 375 (e.g., including the head of the imaged person) appears visible. It is noted that certain portions of an imaged object may be visible in certain frames while being obscured in other frames. Accordingly, information relating to object portions that are not visible in one frame may be extracted from other 10frames in which those same object portions appear visible due to the shifted illumination. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a processor may determine that at least one received frame is subject to blooming artifacts based on received reflections. The determination may take into account relevant factors, 15such as a sensitivity level of a detector 116 and a reflectivity of an object in the FOV. If a region in the frame is determined to be subject to blooming artifacts, it may be determined that the same region in a different frame in the sequence of frames is not subject to blooming artifacts. Visible objects from those regions may be used to supplement the image by replacing the region subject to blooming with 20the same region from a different frame not subject to blooming. As such, a combination of regions from at least two frames in the frame sequence may be used to generate an improved single frame or multiple frames with more object portions visible. A shifted (i.e., vertically displaced) frame may be obtained using various scanning techniques and optical components (e.g., mirrors or deflectors), 25as described hereinabove. For example, a first scanning mirror configured to rotate along a tilt axis (i.e., to direct emitted beams along a vertical direction of a FOV) may have a rotational angle spanning between a minimum angle and a maximum angle, where the minimum to maximum angle may be offset by a selected amount (e.g., by a positive or negative value) so as to shift the vertical 30scanning alignment by a selected amount (e.g., in an upward or downward direction).

IL310326/ At least some of the information in shifted frames may be obtained at a reduced frame rate. For example, a first portion of target object 342 may be obtained at a first (e.g., higher) frame rate in a first frame, while a second portion of target object 342 may be obtained at a second (e.g., lower) frame rate in a second frame. The amount of reduction may be dependent on the size of the 5vertical offset between frames, where an increased vertical offset may correspond to an increased reduction of frame rate. In particular, a larger offset size (vertical shift amount) between frames may extend the visible portions of a target object that may otherwise be obstructed (i.e., by increasing the displacement or alignment shift between the target object and retroreflectors or other objects in the 10scene that may lead to blooming), but the frame rate would also need to be reduced by a proportional amount. Reference is made to Figures 10A and 10B. Figure 10A is an illustration of an exemplary default scanning pattern 380 with variable resolution for different subregions of the field of view. Figure 10B is an illustration of an exemplary 15vertically tilted scanning pattern 410 with variable resolution for different subregions of the field of view, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In both default scanning pattern 380 (Fig.10A) and vertically tilted scanning pattern 410 (Fig.10B), a scanning unit directs a plurality of beams emitted from a multichannel laser array over a FOV along a series of 20scan lines. In particular, beams emitted from a vertically oriented laser array are scanned horizontally over the FOV, by sequential rotation of at least one scanning device (e.g., a mirror or deflector) over a scan axis (i.e., in a horizontal direction to generate horizontal scan lines) and over a tilt axis (i.e., in a vertical direction to vertically displace the scan lines). Each scanning cycle is divided into separate 25scan regions, where a center region of the FOV defines a region of interest (ROI), such as a region near the horizon which may include more objects of interest, and where a top region and a bottom region of the FOV respectively define a non-region-of-interest (NROI), such as a region further from the horizon which may include fewer objects of interest. Each FOV region is scanned at a selected 30resolution in a vertical direction, such as by modifying a tilt increment of the scanning device to generate scan lines of variable vertical spacing over selected regions of the FOV. For example, the NROI regions (top and bottom regions) may IL310326/ be scanned using a larger vertical tilt increment to provide greater spacing between scan lines and thus a lower sampling rate and lower point cloud resolution in the NROI regions, whereas the ROI region (center region) may be scanned using a smaller vertical tilt increment to provide more closely spaced scan lines and thus a higher sampling rate and higher point cloud resolution in the 5ROI region. For example, the NROI regions may be scanned at a tilt increment corresponding to an angular size of the laser array, providing a coarse sampling resolution matching the laser pitch of the laser array, while the ROI region may be scanned at a minimum available tilt increment of the scanning device, to provide a maximal sampling resolution in the ROI region. The terms "vertical offset" and 10"vertical tilt increment" are used interchangeably herein, referring to a vertical displacement between scan lines along a vertical axis (e.g., tilt axis) of a scanning pattern. It is further noted that the term "tilt increment" is generally used herein to refer to a "vertical tilt increment", which represents an exemplary scanning configuration in the context of horizontal scan lines scanned vertically over a FOV, 15where other embodiments may include a "horizontal tilt increment" relating to vertical scan lines scanned horizontally over the FOV. In the default scanning pattern 380 (Fig.10A), each frame is divided into a top scan region 382 of an NROI, a center scan region 383 of an ROI, and a bottom scan region 384 of an NROI, where each scan region 382, 383, 384 20(representing a scanned portion of the FOV) has a vertical scanning angle of degrees. Each frame is scanned at an exemplary scan rate of 20 frames per second (fps). Frame 380 is scanned at a first scan line 385, followed by a second scan line 387 at a vertical tilt increment of 5°, followed by a further scan line 3at a vertical tilt increment of 5°, such that top scan region 382 is encompassed by 25scan lines 385, 387. A further scan line 390 is applied at the same angular position as previous scan line 389, followed by a minimal vertical tilt increment of 0.2° and another pair of scan lines 393, 394. Frame 380 is further scanned at pair of scan lines 395, 396 following a tilt increment of 4.8°, then another pair of scan lines 397, 398 following a minimal tilt increment of 0.2°, such that center scan region 30383 is encompassed by scan lines 389, 390, 393, 394, 395, 396, 397, 398. Another scan line 401 is applied after a tilt increment of 4.8°, followed by a further scan line 403 after a tilt increment of 5°, such that bottom scan region 384 is IL310326/ encompassed by scan lines401, 403. Accordingly, NROI regions 382, 384 are scanned at a lower resolution with scan lines spaced by 5° (corresponding to half the vertical angle of the respective region size), whereas ROI region 383 is scanned at a higher resolution including a greater number of scan lines with closer spacings. 5In the vertically tilted scanning pattern 410 (Fig.10B), each frame is divided into a top scan region 412 of an NROI, a center scan region 413 of an ROI, and a bottom scan region 414 of an NROI, and the frame rate is reduced to an exemplary scan rate of 16 fps. Top scan region 412 has a vertical scanning angle of 5°, center scan region 413 has a vertical scanning angle of 15°, and 10bottom scan region 414 has a vertical scanning angle of 10°. Vertically tilted scanning pattern 410 includes additional scan lines relative to default scanning pattern 380. In particular, frame 410 is scanned at a first scan line 415, which encompasses top scan region 412. After a vertical tilt increment of 5°, frame 4is further scanned by a pair of scan lines 417, 418, followed by a minimal tilt 15increment of 0.2° and another pair of scan lines 421, 422, followed by a further tilt increment of 4.8° and further pair of scan lines 423, 424. The remainder of scan pattern 410 corresponds to default scanning pattern 380. In particular, a further pair of scan lines 427, 478 are applied following a tilt increment of 0.2° (corresponding to scan lines 393, 394 of default scanning pattern 380); followed 20by scan lines 429, 430 following a tilt increment of 4.8° (corresponding to scan lines 395, 396 of default scanning pattern 380); followed by scan lines 433, 4following a tilt increment of 0.2° (corresponding to scan lines 397, 398 of default scanning pattern 380), such that center scan region 413 is encompassed by scan lines 417, 418, 421, 422, 423, 424, 427, 428, 429, 430, 433, 434. Scanning pattern 25410 includes another scan line 435 following a tilt increment of 4.8° (corresponding to scan line 401), and a further scan line 436 following a tilt increment of 5° (corresponding to scan line 403), such that bottom scan region 414 is encompassed by scan lines 435, 436. Thus, additional scan lines (418, 421, 422) are included in vertically shifted scanning pattern 410 relative to default 30scanning pattern 380, increasing the angular size of ROI region 413 to 15°, where ROI region 413 is scanned at a higher resolution than NROI regions 412, 4including a greater number of scan lines with closer spacings. It is appreciated IL310326/ that scanning patterns 380, 410 are described for exemplary purposes as having a "top down" scanning direction (i.e., where a first scan line is at the top of the FOV and subsequent scanning is shifted downwards), but may alternatively implement a "bottom up" scanning direction (i.e., where a first scan line is at the bottom of the FOV and subsequent scanning is shifted upwards). In a further 5example, the FOV may be scanned in a raster pattern, which may be overlapping or non-overlapping, where the scanning resolution for selected FOV regions may be increased in different ways (e.g., by applying a higher pulse rate). When applying a vertically shifted illumination protocol, successive frames are vertically shifted by a selected vertical tilt increment, while maintaining 10a desired (e.g., maximum) resolution for a selected region (e.g., ROI region) of the FOV. Reference is made to Figure 11, which is an illustration of a sequence of exemplary vertically tilted scanning cycles with variable resolution, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Each frame is divided into a top scan region of an NROI having a vertical scanning angle of 5 degrees, 15a center scan region of an ROI having a vertical scanning angle of 15 degrees, and a bottom scan region of an NROI having a vertical scanning angle of degrees, i.e., corresponding to vertically shifted scanning pattern 410. A first frame 441 is obtained at a first position (i.e., a default frame alignment) in relation to the FOV. A second frame 442 is obtained with a vertical offset of -1.2° (e.g., a 20downward shift by an angular increment of 1.2°) relative to first frame 441. A third frame 443 is obtained with a vertical offset of -2.4° (e.g., a downward shift by an angular increment of 2.4°) relative to second frame 442, and thus a vertical offset of -3.6° relative to first frame 441. A fourth frame 444 is obtained with a vertical offset of +1.2° (e.g., an upward shift by an angular increment of 1.2°) relative to 25third frame 442, and thus a vertical offset of -2.4° relative to first frame 441. In the illustrated exemplary vertically offset frame sequence, the maximum vertical offset between any two consecutive frames is 2.4°. While the top 3.6° of the NROI of the top scan region may not always be fully visible (due to possible blooming effects), the entire ROI of the center scan region is always fully visible with a (higher) ROI 30scan resolution as the vertical offset of successive scan cycles ensures that all object portions of a detected object will be visible in at least one of the vertically shifted frames 441, 442, 443, 444, even if certain object portions may be obscured IL310326/ in at least another one of frames 441, 442, 443, 444. A group of scan lines defining an angular size of 10° scans the center (ROI) scan region at a higher ROI resolution, which is shifted vertically along the ROI over the sequence of frames 441, 442, 443, 444 (as depicted). It is noted that the angular size of the ROI region remains constant over the frame sequence and only the vertical offset (vertical tilt 5increment) changes in each frame 441, 442, 443, 444. For a given sequence of frames, the maximum displacement or vertical offset over the entire sequence should be no larger than the angular size or pitch of the entire emitter array. For example in frame sequence 441, 442, 443, 444, the total vertical offset of 3.6° should be less than the angular size of the emitter array. 10Any obscured object pixels (i.e., bloomed pixels) may be replaced or supplemented using information obtained from other frames in the vertically tilted frame sequence, such as a most recent matching valid pixel of the object portion (e.g., within the previous 3 frames). "Extra" pixels of the ROI (out of the 9.6°) may be reduced to a default (lower) NROI scan resolution. 15A vertically offset scanning pattern enables revealing additional data in the FOV that may otherwise be hidden (e.g., due to blooming effects), however such additional revealed data may be available at a reduced frame rate. A larger offset amount (larger tilt increment) between frames may allow for revealing a greater amount of otherwise hidden data but would correspondingly entail a larger 20frame rate reduction. It is appreciated that the scan resolution may be controllable using a vertically shifted illumination protocol, such that a desired scan resolution can be obtained for one or more selected FOV regions. The vertically shifted illumination protocol is not limited by physical constraints (e.g., length or angle) of the detector array, and a desired offset may be established for each frame. 25In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, light is directed toward FOV 120 of LIDAR system 100 using an alternating illumination protocol, such that emitted beams from a multichannel emitter array are applied selectively over a period of time. In particular, selected groups of emitters of an emitter array are activated in a predetermined pattern within a respective frame 30and over a sequence of frames, while other groups of emitters may be deactivated. As a result, objects in the FOV may appear fully visible in at least one frame of the sequence, regardless of possible blooming effects that may occur in IL310326/ other frames of the sequence. Different alternating illumination protocols may be applied for different subregions of the FOV, such as to provide a higher resolution scanning cycle for at least one ROI of the FOV. Such an alternating illumination protocol may be useful for maintaining object detection capabilities when subject to blooming effects, such as to enable discriminating between valid detection 5pixels (resulting from an object reflection) and invalid detection pixels (such as resulting from blooming effects). Reference is made to Figure 12, which is a schematic illustration of an exemplary frame 501 divided into subregions, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Frame 501 is divided into subregions, 10including a top scan region 502 of an NROI, a center scan region 503 of an ROI, and a bottom scan region 504 of an NROI, each having a vertical scanning angle of 10 degrees. Center scan region 503 is further divided into a first (e.g., left side) center scan region 505, a second (e.g., middle) center scan region 506, and a third (e.g., right side) center scan region 507. Each of scan regions 502, 504, 505, 15506, 507 may be scanned with a respective scan pattern and illumination protocol, as will be discussed further hereinbelow. Reference is made to Figure 13, which is an illustration of a default illumination protocol 510 of a multichannel emitter array for a frame portion 511. In the example of Fig. 13, frame portion 511 is a 4x4 matrix of cells, where each 20column (also referred to herein as a "macro-pixel") represents a set of simultaneous light emissions by a vertically oriented multichannel laser array during a part of a scanning cycle, and each cell (also referred to herein as a "pixel") in a column represents a group of emitters of the laser array. For example, if the laser array includes 16 channels or emitters, then an individual cell of frame 25portion 511 (also referred to herein as a "frame" for convenience) may represent a group of 4 emitters, each pair of emitters being separated by at least one inactive region. The exemplary angular length of the laser array (i.e., dimension along the vertical direction of frame 511) is 4.8°, such that the angular size of each individual cell is 1.2° (i.e., representing the size of four active regions and interleaving 30inactive regions). The exemplary angular width of each channel or emitter (i.e., dimension along the horizontal direction of frame 511) is 0.1°, such that the angular size of four columns (representing four emitter groups) is 0.4°.

IL310326/ In the default illumination protocol 510, a first series of emitted beams are emitted simultaneously from all emitter groups at a first time t1, followed by a delay of a duration amount corresponding to an angular width of 0.2° until a later time t3 at which a second series of beams are simultaneously emitted from all emitter groups. It is noted that the delay time (of angular width 0.2°) may be 5dependent on various factors, such as emission characteristics (e.g., power, wavelength, pulse length, pulse rate, etc.) of the emitted light, such as to ensure eye-safety requirements are met. A delay time may represent a time lapse between the movement of a light deflector (e.g., rotation of a scanning mirror) from a first angle to a second angle when executing a scanning. Each time slot of frame 10511 represents an individual scan line segment of a plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV. Accordingly, the term "scan line segment" is used herein to refer to an instantaneous portion of an individual scan line, such as at an instantaneous horizontal position of a scan line for a vertical comb pattern scanned horizontally over the FOV, where a scan line segment may correspond 15to an instantaneous field of view detected by the LIDAR system. A multichannel detector array receives reflections from a FOV corresponding to each emission series, such that each detector pixel (respective of a cell of frame 511) represents reflections of emissions from a corresponding emitter group. For example, four groups of detectors receive a first series of 20reflections of the first series of beams emitted at time t1, where each detector group (e.g., of 4 detectors) corresponds to a respective emitter group (e.g., of emitters) and a respective detector pixel (respective of a frame cell), such that all four groups form a first detector macro-pixel (respective of a frame column) based on reflections received from the first emission series at time t1. Correspondingly, 25the four detector groups receive a second series of reflections from the second emission series at time t3 to form a second detector macro-pixel. If a retroreflector is present anywhere along a detector macro-pixel for a given detection series (i.e., a frame column) of frame 511, then the entire macro-pixel may be subject to blooming effects. 30Reference is made to Figure 14A, which is an illustration of an exemplary alternating illumination protocol, generally referenced 520, with selectively activated emissions over a frame sequence, for applying to selected IL310326/ frame subregions, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Alternating illumination protocol 520 includes a sequence of frame portions (referred to for convenience as "frames"), including a first frame 5("frame N"), a second frame 522 ("frame N+1"), and a third frame 523 ("frame N+2"). The configuration and dimensions of frames 521, 522, 523 are analogous 5to frame 511, where each cell represents an emitter group, and where the angular length of each cell is 1.2° (e.g., representing four active regions and interleaving inactive regions), and where the angular width of each cell is 0.1° (e.g., representing an individual emitter). An illumination protocol is depicted using "1" to indicate a singular emission of a respective emitter group or cell, and a dash "-" 10to indicate a non-emission. Each time slot of a frame 521, 522, 523 represents a scan line segment of a plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV. In first frame 5("frame N"), during a first scan line segment at time t1, a first emitter group and a third emitter group of the laser array are activated (i.e., emit beams), whereas a second emitter group and a fourth emitter group of the laser array are deactivated 15(i.e., do not emit beams). During a second scan line segment at time t2 of frame 521, the second and fourth emitter groups are activated while the first and third emitter groups are deactivated. During a third scan line segment at time t3 of frame 521, the first and third emitter groups are activated while the second and fourth emitter groups are deactivated (i.e., similar to the emission pattern at time t1). 20In second frame 522, the first and second emitter groups are activated while the third and fourth emitter groups are deactivated during a first scan line segment (t1) and during a third scan line segment (t3). During a second scan line segment (t2) of second frame 522, the third and fourth emitter groups are activated while the first and second emitter groups are deactivated. In third frame 523, the 25first and fourth emitter groups are activated while the second and third emitter groups are deactivated during a first scan line segment (t1) and during a third scan line segment (t3). During a second scan line segment (t2) of third frame 523, the second and third emitter groups are activated while the first and fourth emitter groups are deactivated. 30It is noted that each emitter group is activated at least once (i.e., during at least one scan line segment) and is deactivated at least once (i.e., during at least one scan line segment), for each of frames 521, 522, 523. It is further noted IL310326/ that the emission pattern of activated and deactivated emitter groups is different for each frame 521, 522, 523 in the frame sequence. Nevertheless, over the course of a horizontal scanning spanning an angular width of 0.2°, a similar overall number of emissions are provided as compared to default illumination protocol 510. Alternating illumination protocol 520 may ensure that blooming effects are 5avoided for at least a portion of at least one frame in the sequence, as will be illustrated hereinbelow. Each of the emission patterns (of selectively activated and deactivated emitter groups) may be repeated over subsequent scan line segments within a frame in a recurring pattern (for example, such that a fourth scan line segment t4 equals the first scanning line segment t1; a fifth scan line 10segment t5 equals the second scan line segment t2; a sixth scan line segment tequals the third scan line segment t3 and so forth). Similarly, an emission pattern may be repeated successively over subsequent frames in the frame sequence (for example, such that: frame N+3 = frame N; frame N+4 = frame N+1; frame N+5 = frame N+2; and so forth in a recurring pattern), in any order or combination. 15More generally, an emission pattern of a single frame may be repeated successively over multiple frames of a sequence (for example, such that frame N+1 is repeated successively for several frames defining a frame sequence, sequentially, or one or more alternative embodiment, It is appreciated that alternating illumination protocol 520 depicts an 20exemplary series of emission patterns, whereas other emission patterns may also be operative for avoiding blooming effects in at least a portion of at least one frame in a frame sequence. An alternating illumination protocol of the disclosed embodiments may include any number of frames having any number of scan lines. Reference is made to Figure 14B, which is an illustration of another exemplary 25alternating illumination protocol 530 with selectively activated emissions over a frame sequence, for applying to selected frame subregions, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Alternating illumination protocol 530 includes a sequence of four frames 531, 532, 532, 533, having four scan lines each, where at least one emitter group is deactivated once during a 30given scan cycle. For default illumination protocol 510 in which the duration between consecutive emissions corresponds to an angular width of 0.2° (i.e., the delay IL310326/ between separate activations of all emitter groups in two successive scan line segments or instantaneous positions along a scan line), an emitted beam may have a default time of flight (TOF), such as for example, 300 meters (m), where the TOF value may be selected based on various system requirements or limitations. However, for alternating illumination protocol 520 the duration between 5consecutive emissions corresponds to an angular width of 0.1°, since at least one emitter group is activated for each scan line segment of a frame and there is no "deactivation period" in a given scan position (as in scan line segment t2 of frame 511 in protocol 510). Therefore, a default TOF may result in interference among multiple beams emitted in consecutive scan line segments of a frame. Reference 10is made to Figures 14C and 14D. Figure 14C is an illustration of a timing graph, referenced 515, of emissions relating to the default illumination protocol 510 of Fig.13, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 14D is an illustration of a timing graph, referenced 525, of emissions relating to the alternating illumination protocol 520 of Fig.14A, operative in 15accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to graph 515, during a first scan line segment (t1) of a frame 511 of default illumination protocol 510, a first beam 516 is emitted by an activated emitter group at time t1, where first beam 516 is characterized by a default (maximal) TOF 516TOF of 300m. During a second scan line segment (t2) of frame 511 at time t2, all emitter groups 20are deactivated so there are no emissions. During a third scan line segment (t3) of frame 511, a second beam 517 is emitted by an activated emitter group at time t3, where second beam 517 is also characterized by a default TOF 517TOF of 300m. Due to the delay period between time t2 and time t3, there is no overlap in the timing of reflections associated with emitted beams 516, 517 even when 25applying a maximal TOF value. Referring to graph 525, during a first scan line segment (t1) of a frame 521, 522, 523 of alternating illumination protocol 520, a first beam 526 having a default maximum TOF 526TOF of 300m is emitted by an activated emitter group at time t1. If during a second scan line segment (t2) of the frame, a second beam 527 30is emitted by an activated emitter group at time t2 with a same default TOF 527TOF of 300m, then reflections from second beam 527 may interfere with a first activated detector configured to receive reflections from first emitted beam 526.

IL310326/ In particular, since second emitted beam 527 is emitted at time t2 before the TOF 526TOF of first emitted beam 526 is completed, at least a portion of second emitted beam 527 overlaps with TOF 526TOF of first emitted beam 526, resulting in possible interfering reflections during this period pixels from an active detector (e.g., reflections from second beam may be received by an incorrect detector 5pixel). Accordingly, the TOF of each emitted pulse may be reduced, such as to half the default amount, so as to avoid such interference. For example, in an alternate scenario, a reduced-TOF first emitted beam 528 (depicted with dotted lines) having a TOF 528TOF of 150m is emitted at time t1 and a reduced-TOF second emitted beam 529 having a TOF 529TOF of 150m is emitted at time t2. The 10reduced-TOF second emitted beam 529 would thus begin after the TOF 528TOF of first emitted beam 528 has concluded, thereby precluding interference of the corresponding received reflections at an active detector. The emission pattern of alternating illumination protocol 520 is operative to preclude possible blooming effects in at least one detector 15macro-pixel of at least one frame. Reference is made to Figure 15A, which is an illustration of a general reflection pattern obtained using the alternating illumination protocol 520 of Fig.13A with a retroflector at a first exemplary position in the FOV, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. A multichannel detector array receives reflections from a FOV 20according to the emission pattern of alternating illumination protocol 520, such that each detector group (corresponding to a detector pixel and a frame cell) receives reflections of emissions from a corresponding emitter group. A retroreflector 535 is positioned in the FOV such that retroreflector 535 extends across the respective detection windows of the first and second detector groups. 25In other words, retroreflector 535 covers at least a portion of the individual or instantaneous FOV of each detector in the first detector group and the second detector group of the detector array, for each scan line of the scanning cycle. At a first scan line segment (t1) of frame 521, the emission of the first emitter group (at frame cell 5211A) is incident on retroreflector 535. The 30corresponding high reflectivity reflection received at the first detector group results in oversaturation and leakage into the third detector group, which receives reflections from the activated third emitter group, thereby producing blooming at IL310326/ the third detector pixel (at frame cell 5211C). Accordingly, the first detector macro-pixel (of the first scan line segment) is subject to invalid detector response signals from blooming. It is noted that the fourth detector group does not receive reflections from the deactivated fourth emitter group during the first scan line segment, and may therefore be minimally effected by blooming (although may still 5be subject to oversaturating high reflectivity reflections from neighboring detectors). At a second scan line segment (t2) of frame 521, the emission of the second emitter group (at frame cell 5212B) is incident on retroreflector 535, such that the corresponding high reflectivity reflection received at the second detector group results in blooming at the fourth detector pixel (at frame cell 5212D) receiving 10reflections from the activated fourth emitter group. At a third scan line segment (t3) of frame 521, the emission of the first emitter group (at frame cell 5213A) is incident on retroreflector 535, such that the corresponding high reflectivity reflection received at the first detector group results in blooming at the third detector pixel (at frame cell 5213C) receiving reflections from the activated third 15emitter group. Therefore, all three detector macro-pixels in all scan line segments of first frame 521 are subject to invalid detector response signals from blooming effects. However, this would also be the case if a default illumination protocol 5were to be implemented in which all the emitter groups are activated for each emission series. 20Considering second frame 522, at a first scan line segment (t1) and a third scan line segment (t3) thereof, the emissions of the first and second emitter groups (at frame cells 5211A and 5211B) are each incident on retroreflector 535, and the corresponding first and second detector groups receive corresponding high reflectivity reflections, but other emitter groups of the macro-pixel are not 25activated and thus the corresponding third and fourth detector groups are not affected. However, at a second scan line segment (t2) of second frame 522, none of the emissions are incident on retroreflector 535, since the first and second emitted groups are deactivated for this scan cycle, and therefore the corresponding activated detectors groups (third and fourth groups) are not subject 30to blooming. Accordingly, the second detector macro-pixel of second frame 5is operative to include only valid detections and is not susceptible to invalid IL310326/ response signals from blooming effects. Thus, at least one frame of the frame sequence 521, 522, 523 includes a fully valid detector macro-pixel in this scenario. Reference is further made to Figure 15B, which is an illustration of a general reflection pattern obtained using the alternating illumination protocol 5of Fig.13A with a retroflector at a second exemplary position in the FOV, operative 5in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. A multichannel detector array receives reflections from a FOV according to the emission pattern of alternating illumination protocol 520, such that each detector group receives reflections of emissions from a corresponding emitter group. A retroreflector 5is positioned in the FOV such that retroreflector 535 extends across the respective 10detection windows of the second and third detector groups of the detector array (i.e., retroreflector 535 covers at least a portion of the individual or instantaneous FOV of each detector in the second and third detector groups for each scan line segment). At each of the first scan line segment (t1) and third scan line segment 15(t3) of frame 521, the emission of the third emitter group (at frame cell 5211C) is incident on retroreflector 535, such that the corresponding high reflectivity reflection received at the first detector group results in blooming at the first detector pixel (at respective frame cells 5211A and 5213A) receiving reflections from the first emitter group. At a second scan line segment (t2) of frame 521, the 20emission of the second emitter group (at frame cell 5212B) is incident on retroreflector 535, such that the corresponding high reflectivity reflection received at the second detector group results in blooming at the fourth detector pixel (at frame cell 5212D) receiving reflections from the fourth emitter group. Similarly for second frame 522, where high reflectivity reflections received at the second 25detector group at the first and third scan line segments results in blooming at the second detector pixel, while high reflectivity reflections received at the third detector group at the second scan line segment results in blooming at the fourth detector pixel. Therefore, all three detector macro-pixels in all scan line segments of first frame 521 and second frame 522 are subject to invalid detector response 30signals from blooming effects. However, this would also be the case if a default illumination protocol 510 were to be implemented in which all the emitter groups are activated for each emission series.

IL310326/ For third frame 523, at each of the first scan line segment (t1) and the third scan line segment (t3), none of the emissions are incident on retroreflector 535, since the second and third emitted groups are deactivated, and therefore the detectors groups receiving reflections from active emissions (first and fourth groups) are not subject to blooming during these scan line segments. During the 5second scan line segment (t2), the emission of both the second and third emitter groups (at frame cells 5212B and 5212C) are incident on retroreflector 535, however both the first and fourth emitter groups are deactivated and therefore the corresponding first and fourth detector groups are not subject to blooming. Accordingly, all three detector macro-pixels of third frame 523 would include only 10valid detections and would not be susceptible to invalid response signals from blooming effects. Thus, at least one frame of the frame sequence 521, 522, 5includes three fully valid detector macro-pixels in this scenario. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an alternating illumination protocol with selectively activated emitter groups in a sequential 15emission pattern, such as alternating illumination protocol 520 of Fig.14A, is applied to a non-ROI frame subregion, such as a top scan region 502 and bottom scan region 504 of frame 501 (Fig.12). A different illumination protocol may be applied to an ROI frame subregion, such as to center scan regions 503 of frame 501. A frame of a default illumination protocol, such as frame 511 (Fig.13) is 20subject to a default scanning pattern 380, as discussed hereinabove with reference to Fig. 10A. In particular, a top scan region 382 of an NROI is scanned at a lower resolution with individual scan lines at a large relative spacing (e.g., 5° between scan lines 385 and 387). Similarly, a bottom scan region 384 of an NROI is scanned at a lower resolution with individual scan lines at a large relative 25spacing (e.g., 5° between scan lines 401 and 403). In contrast, a center scan region 383 of an ROI is scanned at a higher resolution including a larger number of scan lines with closer relative spacings (e.g., 0.2° between scan lines 389 and, 393). Furthermore, center scan region 383 includes repeating scan lines that are duplicated for a particular vertical position (also referred to herein as 30"hyper-scanning"). For example, center scan region 383 includes a first group of duplicate scan lines 389, 390, a second group of duplicate scan lines 393, 3(following a vertical tilt of 0.2°), a third group of duplicate scan lines 395, 396 IL310326/ (following a vertical tilt of 4.8°), and a fourth group of duplicate scan lines 397, 3(following a vertical tilt of 0.2°). Thus, center scan region 383 is characterized by additional scan lines that are not available in top and bottom scan regions 382, 384. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, the first scan line of 5a duplicate scan line pairing may be utilized for learning the location of a retroreflector in the FOV, whereas the second scan line of the duplicate scan line pairing may be subsequently utilized to obtain a valid detection from the FOV (as will be discussed further hereinbelow). The emitter groups of a macro-pixel are divided into two sub-groups where each sub-group emits at the same horizontal 10scan position (scan line segment) but at different times (i.e., in separate scan lines of a scan line pairing). Reference is made to Figure 16, which is an illustration of a further exemplary alternating illumination protocol, generally referenced 540, with selectively activated emissions over a frame sequence, for applying to a selected frame subregion, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the 15present disclosure. Alternating illumination protocol 540 includes a sequence of frames, including a first frame 541 ("frame N"), a second frame 542 ("frame N+1"), and a third frame 542 ("frame N+2"). The configuration and dimensions of frames 541, 542, 543 are analogous to frame 511 and frame sequence 521, 522, 523, where each cell represents an emitter group, and where the angular length of 20each cell is 1.2° (e.g., representing four active regions and interleaving inactive regions), and where the angular width of each cell is 0.1° (e.g., representing an individual emitter). Each time slot of a frame 541, 542, 543 represents a scan line segment of a plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV. Alternating illumination protocol 540 is operative for applying to an ROI subregion of a frame, such as 25side scan region 505, 507 of frame 501, which includes duplicate scan lines (i.e., hyper-scanning). In illumination protocol 540, a "1" is used to indicate an emission of a respective emitter group or cell during a first scan line of a duplicate scan line pairing, and a "2" is used to indicate an emission of a respective emitter group or cell during a second scan line of a duplicate scan line pairing, while a dash (-) 30indicates a non-emission of a respective emitter group or cell. In first frame 541, during a first scan line segment (t1), a first emitter group is activated during a first scan line of a hyper-scan pairing (e.g., for scan IL310326/ line 389 of hyper-scan pairing 389, 390 of scanning pattern 380), and deactivated during the second scan line of the hyper-scan pairing (e.g., for scan line 390 of hyper-scan pairing 389, 390). Further during the first scan line segment of frame 541, a second emitter group is activated only for a second scan line of a hyper-scan pairing and deactivated for the first scan line of the pairing; a third emitter 5group is activated only for a first scan line of a hyper-scan pairing and deactivated for the second scan line of the pairing; and a fourth emitter group is activated only for a second scan line of a hyper-scan pairing and deactivated for the first scan line of the pairing. During a second scan line segment (t2) of frame 541, all four emitter groups are deactivated entirely. During a third scan line segment (t3) of 10frame 541, the first and third emitter groups are activated only for a first scan line of a hyper-scan pairing and deactivated for the second scan line of the pairing, while the second and fourth emitter groups are activated only for a second scan line of a hyper-scan pairing and deactivated for the first scan line of the pairing (i.e., similar to the emission pattern at time t1). 15In second frame 542, the first and second emitter groups are activated for a first scan line of a hyper-scan pairing and deactivated for the second scan line of the pairing during a first scan line segment (t1) and a third scan line segment (t3), while the third and fourth emitter groups are activated for a second scan line of a hyper-scan pairing and deactivated for the first scan line of the pairing during 20these scan line segments. All four emitter groups are deactivated entirely during a second scan line segment (t2) of second frame 542. In third frame 543, the first and fourth emitter groups are activated for a first scan line of a hyper-scan pairing and deactivated for the second scan line of the pairing during a first scan line segment (t1) and a third scan line segment (t3), while the second and third emitter 25groups are activated for a second scan line of a hyper-scan pairing and deactivated for the first scan line of the pairing during these scan line segments. All four emitter groups are deactivated entirely during a second scan line segment (t2) of third frame 543. It is noted that the reduction in TOF of emitted beams required for 30alternating illumination protocol 520 (as discussed hereinabove) is not needed for illumination protocol 540 due to the deactivation period in each frame. In alternating protocol 520 where at least one emitter group is activated for each IL310326/ scan line segment of a frame, such that the duration between consecutive emissions corresponds to an angular width of 0.1°, a reduced TOF of emitted beams (e.g., from 300m to 150m) is required to avoid interference among the corresponding reflections received by an active detector (as depicted in Fig.14D). In contrast, illumination protocol 540 includes at least one scan line segment in 5each frame with no emissions, such that the duration between consecutive emissions corresponds to an angular width of 0.2°. As in frame 511 of default protocol 510, no emitter groups are activated between time t2 and time t3 of frames 541, 542, 543, and therefore there is no overlap in the timing of reflections from beams emitted at a first active scan time segment (at time t1) and the successive 10beams emitted at a next active scan time segment (at time t3) even when both groups of beams are characterized by a default maximal TOF of 300m (as depicted in Fig.14C). As in alternating protocol 520, the emission pattern of activated and deactivated emitter groups is different for each frame 541, 542, 543 in alternating 15protocol 540. Each emitter group is activated for one scan line and is deactivated for a second scan line of a duplicate scan line pairing in a given scan line segment (e.g., horizontal position). Nevertheless, over the course of a (e.g., horizontal) scanning spanning an angular width of 0.2°, a similar overall number of emissions are provided as in default protocol 510 and alternating protocol 520. Alternating 20protocol 540 may ensure that blooming effects are avoided for at least a portion of at least one frame in the sequence. It is appreciated that alternating protocol 540 depicts an exemplary emission pattern, and other emission patterns may also be operative for avoiding blooming effects in at least a portion of at least one frame in a frame sequence. 25According to an aspect of the present disclosure, processing unit 1may determine that at least one received frame is subject to blooming artifacts based on received reflections. The determination may take into account relevant factors, such as a sensitivity level of a detector 116 and a reflectivity of an object in the FOV. Processing unit 108 may implement one or more corrective measures 30to counteract or offset (e.g., mitigate) the determined blooming artifacts. Such blooming corrective measures may include: applying an adaptive illumination scheme (i.e., illuminating a target object less than other parts of the FOV), and/or IL310326/ applying an adaptive sensing scheme (i.e., reducing the sensitivity of the detector in response to the target object). According to an aspect of the present disclosure, processing unit 1may apply a blooming detection process to scan a region in a FOV and determine the positions of highly-reflective objects and non-highly reflective objects in the 5FOV. Based on the determination, processing unit 108 may apply an adaptive illumination scheme. For example, projecting unit 102 may be directed to simultaneously illuminate only regions containing highly-reflective objects in the FOV while not illuminating other FOV regions, and to subsequently not illuminate FOV regions containing highly-reflective objects while illuminating other regions 10(such as those containing non-highly reflective objects), in at least a portion of at least one scanning cycle. Processing unit 108 may then apply a blooming removal process to selectively remove blooming artifacts only in FOV regions associated with highly-reflective objects while avoiding the application of such blooming removal in FOV regions associated with non-highly reflective objects. 15Reference is made to Figure 17A, which is an illustration of an exemplary illumination by a multichannel emitter array of a scene having a retroreflector in proximity to a target object, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the illustrated scenario, a target object 554 is located in proximity to a highly reflective object 552 (referred to as a 20"retroreflector") in a FOV 550. FOV 550 is scanned by a vertically oriented multichannel laser array, where macro-pixel 551 represents a set of simultaneous light emissions by the laser array during a part of a scanning cycle, and each cell (i.e., pixel) of macro-pixel 551 represents a group of emission channels or active emitters of the laser array. Retroreflector 552 is fully illuminated by a plurality of 25cells (e.g., the three uppermost pixels) of macro-pixel 551, whereas a portion of retroreflector 552 is mutually illuminated with a portion of target object 554 in a subsequent cell (e.g., the lowermost pixel) of macro-pixel 551. A multichannel detector array receives reflections from FOV 5corresponding to the illumination of macro-pixel 551, such that each detector pixel 30(a group of active detectors or detection channels) receives reflections of emissions from a corresponding emitter group. With reference to the lowermost pixel of macro-pixel 551, illuminating a region containing both a highly reflective IL310326/ object, retroreflector 551, and another target object 554, the received reflection partially contains reflections from the retroreflector 552 and partially from non-highly reflective objects. In this scenario, target object 554 may be obscured by the partial reflection from retroreflector 552. Reference is further made to Figure 17B, which is an illustration of a detector macro-pixel response profile, referenced 5556, corresponding to the exemplary illumination of Fig.17A, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Detector response profile 556 depicts an intensity level of the detector response signal (y-axis) as a function of the position of the detector group or detection channel along the detector array (x-axis). For an initial group of detection channels (e.g., position = 100, 1, 2, …, m IL310326/ reflection of a regular or non-highly reflective object (denoted as "N"). For example, the first scan line of a duplicate scan line pairing (hyper-scanning) of a FOV region may be utilized for such classification. Reference is made to Figure 18, which is a schematic illustration of an exemplary frame, referenced 591, with classification of macro-pixels between 5highly reflective and non-highly reflective object reflections, operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Frame 591 is analogous to frame 511 (Fig.13) which is depicted as a 4x4 matrix of cells, where each column (i.e., macro-pixel) represents a set of simultaneous light emissions by a vertically oriented multichannel laser array during a part of a scanning cycle, 10and each cell (i.e., pixel) in a column represents a group of emitters of the array. For one or more scan line segments of a frame, each cell may be classified as either containing at least one highly reflective object ("R") or containing only non-highly reflective objects ("N") (i.e., not containing any highly reflective objects), such as depending on whether a respective detection of the cell exceeds 15a predefined signal intensity threshold. In the example of Fig.18, reflections from retroreflector 595 fall on the upper half regions of the second macro-pixel (t2) and third macro-pixel (t3). Accordingly, frame cells 5912A, 5912B, 5913A and 5913B are classified as high reflectivity reflections ("R"), while all other cells of frame 591 are classified as non-high reflectivity reflections ("N"). It is noted that high reflectivity 20reflections ("R") may be distinguished from non-high reflectivity reflections ("N") in individual cells even if the macro-pixel is subject to blooming. For example, one technique for distinguishing may include applying different signal intensity thresholds in view of the relative positioning of the cell in the macro-pixel (such as in relation to other previously classified "R" or "N" cells). In another example, each 25scan line may utilize information learned in a previous scan line, such that a classification of a second scan line may be based on a previous classification of cells in the first scan line, where the first scan line classification may utilize a previous classification of a first scan line in a previous frame. An adaptive illumination scheme may be applied based on the 30classification of macro-pixel cells. For example, referring to illumination protocol 540 (Fig.16), during a first scan line of a duplicate scan line pairing, emitter groups of macro-pixel cells classified as high reflectivity reflections ("R") are activated IL310326/ ("1") while emitter groups of macro-pixel cells classified as non-high reflectivity reflections ("N") are deactivated ("-"), whereas during a second scan line of the duplicate scan line pairing, emitter groups of macro-pixel cells classified as "N" are activated ("1") while emitter groups of macro-pixel cells classified as "R" are deactivated ("-"). Alternating illumination protocol 540 may be applied to an ROI 5subregion of a frame, such as side scan region 505, 507 of frame 501, which includes duplicate scan lines (i.e., hyper-scanning). Accordingly, processing unit 108 may apply a mapping process to map high-reflectivity objects (retroreflectors) to angular positions (θx, θy) in the FOV, and may apply an adaptive illumination scheme responsive to the mapping. For 10example, the multichannel emitter array may be directed to selectively illuminate only retroreflector regions of the FOV ("R" cells) while not illuminating non-retroreflector regions of the FOV ("N" cells) for at least part of a scanning cycle, and to avoid illuminating retroreflector regions ("R" cells) while illuminating non-retroreflector regions ("N" cells) for at least another part of a scanning cycle. 15Processing unit 108 may then apply at least one corrective measure or blooming removal process to selectively remove blooming artifacts only in detections of FOV regions associated with high-reflectivity objects (retroreflectors). If a region in the frame is determined to be subject to blooming artifacts, it may be determined that the same region in a different frame in the sequence of frames is not subject 20to blooming artifacts. Visible objects from those regions may be used to supplement the image by replacing the region subject to blooming with the same region from a different frame not subject to blooming, such that a combination of regions from multiple frames in a frame sequence may be used to generate an enhanced image. By avoiding the application of blooming corrective measures in 25non-highly reflective object detection regions, processing time may be reduced and efficiency and error rate may be improved. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method for detecting objects in a FOV using LIDAR is provided. The method may include the step of emitting a respective laser beam from respective emitters of a plurality of 30laser emitters of at least one monolithic laser emitter array of a laser emission unit. The method may include the step of directing emitted beams towards the FOV using a scanning unit. The method may include the step of controlling at least IL310326/ one of the laser emission unit and the scanning unit, to direct the emitted beams to the FOV according to an alternating energy level illumination protocol for enabling detection when subject to blooming effects, such that a first emitted beam emitted by a first emitter and having a first energy level illuminates a first FOV region, and a second emitted beam emitted by a second emitter and having 5a second energy level illuminates a second FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region, where the first energy level is lower than the first energy level. The method may include the step of detecting a first reflected beam of the first emitted beam at a first detector of a plurality of detectors of at least one monolithic detector array of a sensing unit, and detecting a second reflected beam of the second emitted 10beam at a second detector of the detector array. According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for detecting objects in a FOV using LIDAR is provided. The method may include the step of emitting a respective laser beam from respective emitters of a plurality of laser emitters of at least one monolithic laser emitter array of a laser emission 15unit. The method may include the step of directing the emitted beams towards the FOV using a scanning unit. The method may include the step of controlling the scanning unit to direct the emitted beams to the FOV according to a shifted illumination protocol for enabling detection when subject to blooming effects, where the scanning unit directs the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan 20lines traversing the FOV, spatially displaces the emitted beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines, spatially displaced from the first plurality of scan lines by a displacement amount defining a tilt increment transverse to the scanning direction along a scan axis, and directs the emitted 25beams along the second plurality of scan lines, such that a first emitted beam emitted by a first emitter in the emitter array in the first plurality of scan lines, illuminates a FOV portion of the FOV at a first time, and a second emitted beam emitted by a second emitter in the emitter array in the second plurality of scan lines, illuminates the FOV portion at a second time subsequent to the first time. 30The method may include the step of detecting a first reflected beam of the first emitted beam at a first detector of a plurality of detectors of at least one monolithic IL310326/ detector array of a sensing unit, and detecting a second reflected beam of the second emitted beam at a second detector of the detector array. While certain embodiments of the disclosed subject matter have been described, so as to enable one of skill in the art to practice the present invention, the preceding description is intended to be exemplary only. It should not be used 5to limit the scope of the disclosed subject matter, which should be determined by reference to the following claims.

Claims (1)

1. IL310326/ -75- CLAIMS1. A LIDAR system for detecting objects in a field of view (FOV), the system comprising: a laser emission unit comprising at least one monolithic laser emitter array comprising a plurality of laser emitters, each of the emitters configured 5to emit a respective laser beam; a scanning unit, configured to direct emitted beams towards the FOV; a sensing unit comprising at least one monolithic detector array comprising a plurality of detectors, each of the detectors configured to detect a respective reflected beam from the FOV; and 10a processor, configured to control at least one of the laser emission unit and the scanning unit to direct the emitted beams to the FOV according to an alternating energy level illumination protocol comprising: at a first time of a scanning cycle, emitting a first emitted beam by a first emitter and having a first energy level to illuminate a first FOV 15region, and emitting a second emitted beam by a second emitter and having a second energy level to illuminate a second FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region, and at a second time of the scanning cycle, emitting a third emitted beam by the second emitter and having the second energy level to 20illuminate a third FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region, and emitting a fourth emitted beam by the first emitter and having the first energy level to illuminate a fourth FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region and to the third FOV region, wherein the first energy level is lower than the second energy level, 25such that in at least one time segment of the scanning cycle, at least one detection pixel of the detector array, receiving reflections of the emitted beams from a target object in the FOV, is a valid detection pixel not resulting from blooming effects. 302. The LIDAR system of claim 1, wherein the first energy level comprises a non-emission of light by the first emitter, and wherein the second energy level comprises an emission of light by the second emitter. IL310326/ -76- 3. The LIDAR system of claim 1, wherein the first energy level and the second energy level differ in at least one property selected from the group consisting of: a radiant intensity; 5a peak power; a beam width; an emission operating mode; an ON/OFF emission scheme; an emission modulation; 10an emission timing; a number of pulses in a pulse sequence; an overall light flux; an emission wavelength; and an emission frequency. 15 4. The LIDAR system of claim 1, wherein the first emitted beam and the second emitted beam are emitted simultaneously. 5. The LIDAR system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to 20determine at least one updated parameter of a target object in the FOV, in accordance with the received reflected beams. 6. The LIDAR system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine a blooming of a target object in the FOV, in accordance with the 25received reflected beams. 7. The LIDAR system of claim 6, further configured to implement at least one blooming corrective measure to offset a determined blooming. 308. The LIDAR system of claim 1, wherein the scanning unit is configured to scan the FOV by directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV, displacing the emitted beams from a first set of IL310326/ -77- locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines; and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, and wherein the alternating energy level illumination protocol comprises activating at least one emitter group of the emitters and deactivating at least 5one emitter group of the emitters in at least a portion of a frame, wherein for at least one scan line of the plurality of scan lines, the processor is configured to activate at least one first emitter group of the emitters to emit at least one beam during a first segment of the scan line, and to deactivate at least one second emitter group of the emitters to not 10emit a beam during the first segment of the scan line; and wherein the processor is further configured to deactivate the first emitter group during a second segment of the scan line, and to activate the second emitter group during the second segment of the scan line. 159. The LIDAR system of claim 8, wherein the alternating energy level illumination protocol is applied for each frame in a sequence of frames. 10. The LIDAR system of claim 8, wherein a first alternating energy level illumination protocol is applied to illuminate a first region of a frame, and 20wherein a second alternating energy level illumination protocol is applied to illuminate a second region of the frame. 11. The LIDAR system of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to generate a point cloud comprising spatial locations of objects in the FOV, 25based on reflected beams detected by the detector array, and to determine blooming artifacts in at least one of the first point cloud and the second point cloud, wherein the alternating energy level illumination protocol is applied responsive to the determination. 3012. The LIDAR system of claim 1, wherein the scanning unit is configured to scan the FOV by directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV, displacing the emitted beams from a first set of IL310326/ -78- locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines, and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, wherein the scanning unit is configured to displace the emitted beams by sequentially rotating a scanning device about two axes including a scanning axis and a tilt axis, and 5wherein at least one of the first plurality of scan lines and the second plurality of scan lines comprises multiple scan lines at a common angular position along the tilt axis, and wherein the processor is configured to activate at least one first emitter group of the emitters to emit at least one beam during a first scan line of the 10multiple scan lines, and to deactivate at least one second emitter group of the emitters to not emit a beam during the first scan line of the multiple scan lines, and wherein the processor is configured to deactivate the first emitter group during a second scan line of the multiple scan lines, and to activate the second emitter group during the second scan line of the multiple scan 15lines. 13. The LIDAR system of claim 12, wherein for each pixel corresponding to a respective emitter group of the emitter array and to a respective detector group of the detector array, the processor is configured to classify the pixel 20into a first category comprising a region containing at least one high-reflectivity object, or into a second category comprising a region not containing at least one high-reflectivity object, and wherein the processor is configured to apply the alternating energy level illumination protocol responsive to the classification, by activating each 25of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the first category and deactivating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the second category during one scan line of the multiple scan lines, and by activating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the second category and deactivating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the first category during another 30scan line of the multiple scan lines. IL310326/ -79- 14. The LIDAR system of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to apply at least one corrective measure to mitigate blooming artifacts in a generated point cloud responsive to the classification, by applying the corrective measure only at selected pixels of the point cloud classified in the first category. 5 15. A method for detecting objects in a field of view (FOV) using LIDAR, the method comprising the steps of: emitting a respective laser beam from respective emitters of a plurality of laser emitters of at least one monolithic laser emitter array of a laser 10emission unit; directing emitted beams towards the FOV, using a scanning unit; detecting a respective reflected beam from the FOV by respective detectors of a plurality of detectors of at least one monolithic detector array of a sensing unit; and 15controlling at least one of the laser emission unit and the scanning unit, to direct the emitted beams to the FOV according to an alternating energy level illumination protocol comprising: at a first time of a scanning cycle, emitting a first emitted beam by a first emitter and having a first energy level to illuminate a first FOV 20region, and emitting a second emitted beam by a second emitter and having a second energy level to illuminate a second FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region, and at a second time of the scanning cycle, emitting a third emitted beam by the second emitter and having the second energy level to 25illuminate a third FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region, and emitting a fourth emitted beam by the first emitter and having the first energy level to illuminate a fourth FOV region, adjacent to the first FOV region and to the third FOV region, wherein the first energy level is lower than the second energy level, 30such that in at least one time segment of the scanning cycle, at least one detection pixel of the detector array, receiving reflections of the emitted IL310326/ -80- beams from a target object in the FOV, is a valid detection pixel not resulting from blooming effects. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first energy level comprises a non-emission of light by the first emitter, and wherein the second energy 5level comprises an emission of light by the second emitter. 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of controlling comprises controlling at least one property of at least one of the first energy level and the second energy level, the property selected from the group consisting of: 10a radiant intensity; a peak power; a beam width; an emission operating mode; an ON/OFF emission scheme; 15an emission modulation; an emission timing; a number of pulses in a pulse sequence; an overall light flux; an emission wavelength; and 20an emission frequency. 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the first emitted beam and the second emitted beam are emitted simultaneously. 2519. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of: determining at least one updated parameter of a target object in the FOV, in accordance with the received reflected beams. 20. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of: 30determining a blooming of a target object in the FOV, in accordance with the received reflected beams. IL310326/ -81- 21. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of implementing at least one blooming corrective measure to offset a determined blooming. 22. The method of claim 15, wherein the scanning unit is configured to scan the FOV by directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines 5traversing the FOV, displacing the emitted beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines, and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, and, wherein the alternating energy level illumination protocol comprises activating at least one emitter 10group of the emitters and deactivating at least one emitter group of the emitters in at least a portion of a frame, wherein for at least one scan line of the plurality of scan lines, at least one first emitter group of the emitters is activated to emit at least one beam during a first segment of the scan line, and at least one second emitter group 15of the emitters is deactivated to not emit a beam during the first segment of the scan line; and wherein the first emitter group is deactivated during a second segment of the scan line, and the second emitter group is activated during the second segment of the scan line. 2023. The method of claim 22, wherein the alternating energy level illumination protocol is applied for each frame in a sequence of frames. 24. The method of claim 22, wherein a first alternating energy level illumination protocol is applied to illuminate a first region of a frame, and wherein a 25second alternating energy level illumination protocol is applied to illuminate a second region of the frame. 25. The method of claim 22, further comprising the steps of: generating a point cloud comprising spatial locations of objects in the 30FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array; and IL310326/ -82- determining blooming artifacts in at least one of the first point cloud and the second point cloud, wherein the alternating energy level illumination protocol is applied responsive to the determination. 26. The method of claim 15, wherein the scanning unit is configured to scan the 5FOV by directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV; displacing the emitted beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines; and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, wherein the scanning unit is 10configured to displace the emitted beams by sequentially rotating a scanning device about two axes including a scanning axis and a tilt axis, and wherein at least one of the first plurality of scan lines and the second plurality of scan lines comprises multiple scan lines at a common angular position along the tilt axis, and 15wherein at least one first emitter group of the emitters is activated to emit at least one beam during a first scan line of the multiple scan lines, and at least one second emitter group of the emitters is deactivated to not emit a beam during the first scan line of the multiple scan lines, and wherein the first emitter group is deactivated during a second scan line of the multiple 20scan lines, and the second emitter group is activated during the second scan line of the multiple scan lines. 27. The method of claim 22, further comprising the steps of: for each pixel corresponding to a respective emitter group of the emitter 25array and to a respective detector group of the detector array, classifying the pixel into a first category comprising a region containing at least one high-reflectivity object, or into a second category comprising a region not containing at least one high-reflectivity object; and applying the alternating energy level illumination protocol responsive to 30the classification, by activating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the first category and deactivating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the second category during one scan line of the multiple scan IL310326/ -83- lines, and by activating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the second category and deactivating each of the emitter groups of pixels classified in the first category during another scan line of the multiple scan lines. 528. The method of claim 27, further comprising the step of applying at least one corrective measure to mitigate blooming artifacts in a generated point cloud responsive to the classification, by applying the corrective measure only at selected pixels of the point cloud classified in the first category. 1029. A LIDAR system for detecting objects in a field of view (FOV), the system comprising: a laser emission unit comprising at least one monolithic laser emitter array comprising a plurality of laser emitters, each of the emitters configured to emit a respective laser beam; 15a scanning unit, configured to direct emitted beams towards the FOV, and to scan the FOV by directing the emitted beams along a plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV; a sensing unit comprising at least one monolithic detector array comprising a plurality of detectors, each of the detectors configured to detect 20a respective reflected beam from the FOV; and a processor, configured to control the scanning unit, according to a shifted illumination protocol comprising: directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV; spatially displacing the emitted beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan 25lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines, spatially displaced from the first plurality of scan lines along a tilt axis by a displacement amount defining a tilt increment transverse to the scanning direction along a scan axis, the tilt increment being less than the angular size of the emitter array, and directing the emitted beams along the 30second plurality of scan lines, wherein a first emitted beam, emitted by a first emitter of the emitter array in the first plurality of scan lines, illuminates a FOV portion of the FOV at a first time of a scanning cycle, and a second IL310326/ -84- emitted beam, emitted by a second emitter in the emitter array in the second plurality of scan lines, illuminates the FOV portion at a second time of the scanning cycle, the second time subsequent to the first time, such that at least one detection pixel of the detector array, receiving reflections of the emitted beams from a target object in the FOV, is a valid 5detection pixel not resulting from blooming effects, in at least one time segment of the scanning cycle, for at least a portion of the field of view along the tilt axis. 30. The LIDAR system of claim 29, wherein the first emitted beam and the 10second emitted beam are in a common frame. 31. The LIDAR system of claim 29, wherein the first emitted beam is in a first frame, and the second emitted beam is in a second frame. 1532. The LIDAR system of claim 29, wherein the processor is configured to repeatedly spatially displace the emitted beams from the first set of locations to the second set of locations, over a plurality of respective spatial displacements for a sequence of frames, each of the spatial displacements defining a respective tilt increment. 20 33. The LIDAR system of claim 32, wherein the FOV includes at least one region of interest (ROI) and at least one non region of interest (NROI), wherein the NROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines defining a first scanning resolution, and the ROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines defining a 25second scanning resolution higher than the first scanning resolution. 34. The LIDAR system of claim 33, wherein the NROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines comprising a relative spatial displacement corresponding to an angular size of the emitter array, and wherein the ROI 30is scanned along a plurality of scan lines comprising a relative spatial displacement corresponding to an angular size between adjacent emitters of the emitter array. IL310326/ -85- 35. The LIDAR system of claim 29, wherein the processor is configured to generate a first point cloud and a second point cloud, each comprising spatial locations of objects in the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the FOV, to compare the first point cloud with the 5second point cloud to detect an inconsistency therebetween. 36. The LIDAR system of claim 35, wherein the FOV comprises at least one target object and at least one highly reflective object, wherein the processor is configured to determine blooming artifacts in at least one of the first point 10cloud and the second point cloud. 37. The LIDAR system of claim 29, wherein the FOV comprises at least one target object and at least one highly reflective object, wherein the processor is configured to generate a first point cloud comprising spatial locations of a 15first region of the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the first region of the FOV, to determine blooming artifacts in the second point cloud associated with the highly reflected object, and to generate a second point cloud comprising spatial locations of a second region of the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array 20from the second region of the FOV, and to detect the target object in the second point cloud. 38. A method for detecting objects in a field of view (FOV) using LIDAR, the method comprising the steps of: 25emitting a respective laser beam from respective emitters of a plurality of laser emitters of at least one monolithic laser emitter array of a laser emission unit; directing emitted beams towards the FOV, using a scanning unit; detecting a respective reflected beam from the FOV by respective 30detectors of a plurality of detectors of at least one monolithic detector array of a sensing unit; and IL310326/ -86- controlling the scanning unit to direct the emitted beams to the FOV according to a shifted illumination protocol comprising: directing the emitted beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV; spatially displacing the emitted beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a 5second plurality of scan lines, spatially displaced from the first plurality of scan lines along a tilt axis by a displacement amount defining a tilt increment transverse to the scanning direction along a scan axis, the tilt increment being less than the angular size of the emitter array; and directing the emitted beams along the second plurality of scan lines, wherein a first 10emitted beam, emitted by a first emitter in the emitter array in the first plurality of scan lines, illuminates a FOV portion of the FOV at a first time of the scanning cycle, and a second emitted beam, emitted by a second emitter in the emitter array in the second plurality of scan lines, illuminates the FOV portion at a second time of the scanning cycle, the second time subsequent 15to the first time such that at least one detection pixel of the detector array, receiving reflections of the emitted beams from a target object in the FOV, is a valid detection pixel not resulting from blooming effects, in at least one time segment of the scanning cycle, for at least a portion of the field of view along the tilt axis. 20 39. The method of claim 38, wherein the first emitted beam and the second emitted beam are in a common frame. 40. The method of claim 38, wherein the first emitted beam is in a first frame, 25and the second emitted beam is in a second frame. 41. The method of claim 38, comprising repeatedly spatially displacing the emitted beams from the first set of locations to the second set of locations, over a plurality of respective spatial displacements for a sequence of frames, 30each of the spatial displacements defining a respective tilt increment. IL310326/ -87- 42. The method of claim 38, wherein the FOV includes at least one region of interest (ROI) and at least one non region of interest (NROI), wherein the NROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines defining a first scanning resolution, and the ROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines defining a second scanning resolution higher than the first scanning resolution. 5 43. The method of claim 41, wherein the NROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines comprising a relative spatial displacement corresponding to an angular size of the emitter array, and wherein the ROI is scanned along a plurality of scan lines comprising a relative spatial displacement 10corresponding to an angular size between adjacent emitters of the emitter array. 44. The method of claim 38, further comprising the steps of: generating a first point cloud and a second point cloud, each 15comprising spatial locations of objects in the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the FOV; and comparing the first point cloud with the second point cloud to detect an inconsistency therebetween. 2045. The method of claim 42, wherein the FOV comprises at least one target object and at least one highly reflective object, the method further comprising the step of determining blooming artifacts in at least one of the first point cloud and the second point cloud. 2546. The method of claim 38, wherein the FOV comprises at least one target object and at least one highly reflective object, the method further comprising the steps of: generating a first point cloud comprising spatial locations of a first region of the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array 30from the first region of the FOV; determining blooming artifacts in the second point cloud associated with the highly reflected object; IL310326/ -88- generating a second point cloud comprising spatial locations of a second region of the FOV, based on reflected beams detected by the detector array from the second region of the FOV; and detecting the target object in the second point cloud. 5