Photonics - General Science

[prototype_101]

Startup Luminar Technologies Inc., founded in 2012, comes out of stealth mode unveiling a high-resolution LiDAR sensor with a 200 meters range, 120-degree range of view, optical zoom and ability to see in rain or fog.

The company's lidar technology uses a laser operating at a standard and eye-safe 1550 nm wavelength (InP) – one more usually associated with long-haul optical communications – but incorporating an InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) based receiver. (others use 905nm wavelength and silicon-based receiver)

The company has engineered and manufactured all major components of their system from the chip-level up, including lasers, receivers, scanners, and processing electronics. The result, according to Luminar, is the first lidar system to achieve the necessary range and resolution to drive autonomous vehicles safely and at full speed, meeting the needs of every major autonomous vehicle program.

The system has a range of over 200 meters, versus, for instance, 120m for Velodyne’s hulking high-end HDL-64E unit. Quanergy’s S3 sensor is much smaller, similar to Luminar’s, but it can measure just a half million location points per second. Russell says that Luminar’s can measure “millions” per second.

At 200 meters/600 feets, it can detect hard-to-see, low-reflectivity objects such as a black car or tire on the road, and offers a full seven seconds of reaction time at 75 miles per hour. The best currently deployed systems see such objects (assuming 10% reflectivity) at less than 35 meters, which at highway speeds offers less than one second of reaction time.

In a recent demonstration, another version generated even sharper images, but the information was processed with a slight delay -- because of a lack of computing power to crunch all the data rather than a problem with the core technology.


Price point:
A top-of-the-range lidar from Velodyne sells for more than $50,000. It offers cheaper lidar, which generates lower-definition 3-D images, for about $8,000, while Quanergy has a product that sells for some $4,000. Autonomous cars often require two or more lidar sensors, so having a capable system can get expensive.

Luminar is trying to develop a lidar priced significantly less than $1,000, according to people with knowledge of Luminar’s planning.

Financing:
Making sure Luminar has the financial means to compete are 4 Investors: 1517 Fund, ARCHina Capital Partners, Canvas Ventures, GVA capital, investing US $36M of seed money.


Luminar Lidar First Look (video 1:57 - 13 avr. 2017)

found on agoracom poetf board
http://agoracom.com/ir/POETTechnologies/forums/discussion/topics/689004-lidar-dropping-in-on-datacom-wavelength-1550-nm/messages/2147085#message