Not just drones: DJI is creating a revolution in the future transportation market thanks to its lidars. DroneUA is the official importer and distributor of the entire line of DJI technologies in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
It is likely that DJI will soon be associated not only with all kinds of drones of various modifications and purposes, but also with the entire ecosystem of robotics and transport of the future.
DJI, at the CES 2020 exhibition, in addition to the traditional line of branded quadcopters, presented the Livox lidar system, promising to revolutionize the remote sensing sensor industry. As part of the presentation, two sensors were announced: Horizon and Tele-15, which are based on a fundamentally new scanning method. This opens up vast horizons for the use of such systems – from simple cars to complex robotics for a wide range of applications (logistics, cartography, geodesy, smart cities, etc.).
In short, lidar or laser radar (Light Detection and Ranging) – This is a special optical sensor thatscans space using an infrared beam. The technology is not new, but it has become a real breakthrough for the automotive and transport industry, giving hope for the emergence of autopilots.
The idea is simple: the sensor emits laser beams and receives their reflection, recording the time interval of their return. Since the speed of light is known, in this way it is possible to obtain accurate information about the distance to the object that reflected it.
And although everything is quite clear, the complexity lies in the details: how to direct the laser in different directions, how to measure the travel time there and back, and what frequency of light to use.
There are quite a lot of solutions for this technology today, but the key difference between Livox and market analogues is non-repetitive scanning (NRS), which provides significant advantages over the classic repeating linear pattern scanning (RLS) of most current lidars. The peculiarity is thatconventional lidar sensors are based on the horizontal linear scanning methodwhich has a significant disadvantage — probability of blind spots. This means that some objects within the field of view remain undetected no matter how long the scan lasts. Livox technology is capable of scanning 99.8% of the field of view and successfully detecting objects at a distance of up to 500 meters, which is impossible for the human eye.
A feature of the new lidars is to increase the scanning accuracy depending on its duration. The unique scanning method of the Livox Lidar sensor allows you to achieve almost 100% recognition accuracy with increasing scanning time, or simply putwith each subsequent scan, the image improves. This is possible due to the special generation of the scanning pattern and the subsequent creation of a three-dimensional image of the environment.
In addition, thanks to patented DL-Pack technology, Livox calibrates automatically.
Horizon and Tele-15 differ in their characteristics. For example, Horizon can scan space at a distance of up to 260 m and easily covers 4 lanes of traffic at a distance of 10 m. But Tele-15 can detect objects at a distance of up to 500 m, thus helping the autonomous driving system to detect distant objects in advance, thereby significantly increasing the response time even at high speeds. Both sensors operate over a wide (and even extreme) temperature range – from –40°C to 65°C.
Manufacturers claim that these products serve as a shining example when the balance between price and quality is not violated.
But no matter how it happens, one thing can be stated unequivocally – humanity is on the verge of dramatic changes in its history.
The Drone.UA team is convinced that the development of this technology will revolutionize the era of mechanical engineering. Already now in Ukraine there is a need for such devices from companies related to motor transport, robotics and engineering geodesy. Although this is not intended for the areas of use of lidars — they are important in the field of studying climatology, archeology, and creating additional reality. But more on that a little later…
Livox sensors are already available in the DroneUA range
