Lidar supplier RoboSense has officially launched their RS-lidar-E1, a flash solid-state lidar that sees 360° based on its in-house, custom developed chips and flash technology platform. Also announced was the only lidar lab of the industry recognized so far by the China National Accreditation Service, and a smart manufacturing joint venture called Luxsense, jointly with Luxshare-ICT.
The RoboSense E1 serves as a new product platform featuring area array transceiver technology with application-specific developed chips as the core. It is designed for large-scale series production with a simple bill of materials including no moving parts, and excels in all the three aspects of detection performance, cost, and automotive-grade safety and reliability. The E1 will assist partners to further bridge the gap in smart driving perception and improve the all-scenario perception capability of automated and autonomous vehicles. Main characteristics include:
- Horizontal FOV of 120°, which ensures 360° coverage using minimum sensors
- Vertical FOV of 90°, to cover both blind zones on the ground and lateral vision
- Ultra-high frame rates of over 25Hz, capturing target objects’ motion state
- Detection range of 30m @10 per cent reflectivity, which enables better perception planning control.
The E1 uses RoboSense’s first in-house, custom chips for flash solid-state lidar platform, and their first 2D electronic scanning technology. With highly integrated chips that incorporate the three core components of transmission, reception, and processing, the E1 greatly streamlines the circuit design and production processes.
To ensure product performance and rapidly improve production capacity, RoboSense launched the first—and so far the only—CNAS-certified lidar lab to analyze lidar and their components and developed a complementary smart manufacturing system to produce this high-precision sensor.
During the event, leaders of RoboSense and Luxshare jointly held the unveiling ceremony of Luxsense. Investment in the first phase of RoboSense smart manufacturing system exceeded C¥1bn cumulatively; the plant area exceeds 55,000 m2, including just under 20 automated production lines to achieve a production of a lidar every 12 seconds.
DVN comment
We still need to see how a short range lidar with 30m range can contribute to vehicle features. The standard range for radars doing almost the same job for a much cheaper price is 40m today.