Gallery: Electronics in the spotlight at Xponential 2016 unmanned systems exhibition

A lidar without lasers

Not all lidar sensors use lasers. A case in point are these units multi-element sensors from Leddar Tech. They send out 940-nm IR from LED emitters, helpful in cases where there’s a need for intrinsically safe lighting. It also consumes less power than laser versions. But you don’t get the kind of painted-scene display that characterizes higher-end laser lidar setups. These sensors divide the area into eight or 16 segments with 9° to 95° beams. So the display is generally a dot, or the absence of one, indicating whether there is an object detected in a given segment, and if so, its range. The sensors detect objects out to about 100 m with a data acquisition time of up to 50 Hz. They are accurate to 5 cm and can resolve distances down to 100 mm.

Leddar also has a single-element sensor module that uses a 3° beam and can detect objects out to 40 m. It can resolve distances down to 3 mm.
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