Unmanned Systems Technology 024 | Wingcopter 178 l 5G focus l UUVs insight l CES report l Stromkind KAT l Intelligent Energy fuel cell l Earthsense TerraSentia l Connectors focus l Advanced Engineering report

6 Mission-critical info for UST professionals Platform one Various companies launched low-cost Lidar systems for autonomous vehicles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, with volume manufacturing due in the next few months (writes Nick Flaherty). Cepton’s Micro-Motion Technology is used in its Vista-M and Vista-X sensors that are designed to work with the sensor fusion software in Nvidia’s Drive in-car computing platform and in UAVs. The Vista-M has a 120 º FOV, a 150 m range and can be integrated into a vehicle’s headlights, tail lights and side view mirrors, giving designers more freedom to bring intelligence and autonomy into vehicle designs. Cepton is currently providing this miniaturised solution to its automotive partners for different integration approaches. The company said it is set to put the Vista-M into mass production with Tier 1 suppliers and manufacturing partners by this June for deployment in autonomous vehicles. The Vista-X has a 200 m range and a 120 º FOV. This FOV enables object detection, tracking and localisation in a much wider area than previous versions. A uniform 0.2 º spatial resolution across the entire FOV eliminates the complexity and safety risk in runtime FOV configurations, enabling the design flexibility to integrate the Vista-X into the front, back or inside a vehicle. Meanwhile SOS Lab showed a hybrid 3D Lidar sensor that uses a motor with a MEMS mirror, and with a 120 º field of view and a range up to 200 m with an accuracy of ±2 cm. The sensor measures 110 x 100 x 85 mm. It is heading for volume production later this year. The company is also developing a solid-state Lidar sensor. In another announcement, solid-state Lidar sensor start-up AEye said its AE110 is going into volume production. The iDAR – Intelligent Detection And Ranging – system combines data from the 1550 nm laser-based Lidar sensor with a low-light HD camera. The AE110 has ASIL-B functional safety certification, and has been designed to fit into the ISO 26262 automotive safety design process. “By using an agile, software-definable Lidar, the AE110 can collect four to eight times the information of a fixed-pattern Lidar, using one-eighth the number of points,” said Aravind Ratnam, vice- president, product management, at AEye. “This means that if a child walks into a scene, for example, we can revisit that image within microseconds to help the vehicle take evasive action.” Tests have shown that the iDAR system can detect and track a truck at 1000 m with a scan rate of 100 Hz, and is going into volume production in March. (for more on AEye, see our CES resport on page 52.) InnovizOne, LeddarTech, Quanergy, MicroSight, Newsight Imaging, Sense Photonics and Abax Sensing are also developing scanning or solid-state Lidar sensor systems, highlighting the expected growth of autonomous vehicles in the next 12-24 months. Sensors Spate of low-cost Lidars February/March 2019 | Unmanned Systems Technology Cepton was just one company to debut its Lidar systems at the CES show