L i D A R – s c a n y o u r w o r l d
Autonomous Driving Meetup #5Mathias Müller
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Autonomous Driving –Transportation of the Future
New mobility models
fleet operators, shared cars
Enormous safety gain
no human errors
Time
freeing for
drivers
Supply and
logistics
redefined
Laser Range Scanners (Lidar)
Essential sensor in autonomous cars
Gives 3D point-cloud ofenvironment
*see e.g. E. Ackerman: Cheap Lidar: The Key to Making Self-
Driving Cars Affordable, in IEEE Spectrum Magazine
Flex Lidar prototype data – person walking
Experts agree*
Driverless needs Lidar
Sensor suite
LiDAR Radar Camera
3D Information + + +
Resolution + O O
Field of View + - O
Cost O + -
Color
Blickfeld GmbH | Confidential
The ProblemLidar Technology Gap
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Products are
good in performance
but very expensive
not fully industrialized
have limited reliability
Requirements
Use case motivated differences
> 100 m range
@ 10% reflectivity
0,1° horizontal angular resolution
0,1° vertical angular resolution
100° x 30° field of view
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Object
Lidar principle
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Object
3D scanning Lidar principle
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Object
3D flash Lidar principle
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3D Lidar enemies or whats the problem?
Cost
Daylight
Robustness
Cost
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„It‘s easy to build a lidar, it‘s hard to build a cheapreliable 3D lidar“
Which wavelength?
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Efficient + low cost
Detectors
Light sources
Laser safety
=> 905 vs 1550 nm
Fiber-laser
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905 vs 1550 nm
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Fiber-laser 1550 nm
vs
Laser-diode 905 nm
=> fiber lasers may be a solution for nextgeneration
Object
Collimation problem
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Beam parameter product / Conservation of etendue
Liouville Theorem: “phase-space distribution function is constant along the trajectories of the system”
Min. 10 mm
Object
Link budget
1 billion photons 1 billion photons10^12
0
5
10
Detected At detector At Lidar Reflected At object
1 photon
Object
Daylight problem-> spacial filtering
daylight photons
1 billion photons
Target
Crosstalk / spoofing
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✓
✓
Overall solution statement
Use off the shelf automotive grade components
Use 10+ mm aperture forCollimation problemEye safe link budget
Coaxial setup with spacial-filteringfor
Daylight problemCrosstalk/spoofing problem
Photon level coding forAdvanced spoofing problem
Building the 3D lidar boils down to:
Build a MEMS mirror solutionwith
>10 mm aperture / 100 mm² area
2D scanning directions
100° field of view
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MVP
Ethernet
ROS interface
15x7x7 cm
12V DC / 10W
Point cloudoutput
Solid state
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Blickfeld‘s 30 member team
Rolf WojtechSoftwareFounder of fos4X, 6 years lead software development
Dr. Florian Petit Business Development6 years in robotics research, ETH Zürich, DLR, Stanford Univ.
Dr. Mathias Müller CEO & RnDFounder & CTO of fos4X, sensor tech startup, 50 employees, break-even
Dr. Florian Lenz CFO & HR6 years strategy
and risk consulting
Dr. Sebastian Neusser Advisor & PatentsPatent attorneyPhysics background
Nicole KubeBD & Comm
9 yrs, Roland Berger, Zürich Versicherung
Timor KnudsenEmbedded SW
11 yrs, Magna
Florian SchmidtSoftware
15 yrs, robotics
Markus RauscherElektronics
5 yrs, optics, electronics
Dr. Jan KuypersMEMS
20 yrs MEMS leader
Product Generation 2
100° field of view
>120 m range
1M data points / second
10-100 Hz adjustable frame rate
0,1° resolution
110 mm x 60 mm x 30 mm form factor
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