48 Focus | Lidar include the study of deepsea thermal vent fields or remote temperature monitoring during dry cask storage operations for spent nuclear fuel. The same sensor can be used to measure the amplitude and frequency of vibrations to evaluate structural integrity, including measuring and calculating vibration modes of the structure. This can also be used for exact placement of objects in an underwater environment. This can project a visible target on the seabed to aid with accurate placement of the equipment, and using the optical system on an UUV can monitor its location in reference to other underwater structures and features for more accurate positioning. Future trends In the short term, the rapid replacement of 1550 nm fibre lasers with 905nm or 940nm VCSELs in the next few years will help to reduce costs. A lower-cost alternative for 1550 nm lasers is InP-based, high-power EELs, although these are still more expensive than GaAs-based lasers. The ongoing development of Lidar systems is a balance of distance and cost. The 200–300 m distance requirement is increasingly being met, and the further increase in performance allows engineering tradeoff for reducing the cost. Over the past decade, Lidar costs have plummeted from over $10,000 to the current range of $500 to $1,000. This downward trend is expected to continue, potentially reaching the $100 range in the coming years as production volumes increase and technologies such as silicon photonics become mainstream. Acknowledgements With thanks to Dong Liang at Vertilite, Jingye Chen at Zhejiang University and Paul Camus at CEA-Leti. April/May 2025 | Uncrewed Systems Technology AUSTRIA RIEGL +43 2982 4211 www.riegl.com BELGIUM Xenomatix +32 16 40 64 34 www.xenomatix.com CANADA LeddarTech +1 418 653 9000 www.leddartech.com CHINA Vertilite +86 519 6822 0889 www.vertilite.com FRANCE Outsight +33 6 11 29 30 28 www.outsight.com SteerLight - www.steerlight.com Valeo +33 1 40 55 20 20 www.valeo.com YellowScan +33 411 931 400 www.yellowscan.fr GERMANY SICK + 49 7681 202 4183 www.sick.com ISRAEL Innoviz Technologies +972 9955 9218 innoviz.tech Lidwave - www.lidwave.com US 3D at Depth +1 703 851 6944 www.3datdepth.com Aeye + 1 925 400 4366 www.aeye.ai Trimble/Applanix +1 289 695 6162 www.applanix.trimble.com Lumotive - www.lumotive.com Neuvition +1 888 487 8667 www.neuvition.com Ouster +1 415 949 0108 www.outer.io Phoenix Lidar Systems +1 323 577 3366 www.phoenixlidar.com TetraVue + 1 442 222 1330 www.tetravue.com Trilumina +1 505 633 8800 www.trilimina.com Some examples of Lidar suppliers
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