Zvision, a Chinese supplier of automotive-grade MEMS lidar equipment, formally launched their new short-range ML-30s+ lidar ML-30s+ at CES—with an ultra-large FOV; enhanced imaging effects; new automotive-grade hardware and software architecture, and customized engineering
The ML-30s+ lidar has an ultra-large FOV of 140° × 70°, so it can detect a vehicle advancing from behind 1.4m earlier than a 120° system, which gives the vehicle’s systems (or the human driver) an extra 300-700 ms to respond. And in context of 360° blind spot coverage, the blind spot splicing of 140° is half the size of that for 120°.
As to vertical FOV, the ML-30s+ has an asymmetric design that directs the limited FOV to the closest blind area. The -50° (placed horizontally) of the ML-30s+ is the largest design in the industry, which can effectively detect objects at ground level: low safety guardrails, bricks, boulders, stone abutments, safety cones and other road obstacles, as well as accurately identifying lane and parking markings.
The angular resolution of 0.44° × 0.44° and the frequency of 512,000 points per second (in single echo mode) mean the ML-30s+ meets the requirements for constructing a detailed map of the object. This allows to obtain 20-point clouds from the black-clad pedestrian at a distance of 22 m, and 6 point clouds from the triangular cone barrel at a distance of 25 m. The new lidar also has good ranging capabilities under severe weather conditions. Through unique algorithm and sensor technologies, the ML-30s+ can achieving stable and clear detection in the dark, and also does well in direct sunlight, providing reliable 3D sensing capability for autonomous driving under all kinds of working conditions.
The ML-30s+ has an unusual non-coaxial architecture. The MEMS mirror module is responsible for the two-dimensional scanning of the transmitting module, while the pure solid-state receiving module is responsible for the gaze reception of large FOV. The two do not interfere with each other. As for device reliability, the MEMS mirror module comes with new proprietary packaging, as well as temperature and humidity resistance and vibration shock resistance at the highest level in the industry. The design life tops 50,000 hours, fully meeting the requirements of passenger vehicles.
A short-range lidar like this closely monitors the area immediately adjacent to the vehicle body, which will inevitably interfere with the surroundings of the vehicles, resulting in abnormal point clouds such as body noise and point cloud adhesion. This affects the correct judgment of the ADS and may result in emergency braking or slower forward progression. Zvision has accumulated years of practice in short-range products; through specific point removal models and algorithms, the special software in the ML-30s+ functions to resolve point clouds in proximity to the body, and can adapt to different body shapes to meet the requirements of efficient mass integration.
Zvision offers an end-to-end integration solution including multiple radar installation error prevention, off-line calibration, dirt detection and cleaning, hibernation wake-up, and window heating. It effectively reduces the difficulty of various engineering development aspects before and after lidar onboarding, and improves overall vehicle integration efficiency, thus lowering apposite costs.
Zvision says they are the first producer in China to complete the whole process of R&D and mass production of short-range lidar. In the past three years, the company’s first-generation short-range lidar has been widely used by JDL, Inceptio Technology, Mobileye and Deeproute.
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Founded in 2017, Zvision has developed a full suite of MEMS lidar solutions covering long-range, short- and medium-range applications. In June last year, Zvision announced the completion of hundreds of millions of C¥ worth of series-B financing, led by Intel Capital and Chinese investment institution and startup platform Sinovation Ventures in Series B1 and Series B2, respectively.
