

Pioneer announces MEMS-based LIDAR for self driving cars [pdf] - Animats
http://pioneer.jp/en/news/press/2015/pdf/0901-1.pdf

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Symmetry
If those things are as good as they look from that press release then robotics
companies are going to be snapping those sensors up as fast as they can.

EDIT: My coworker points me to an article that clarifies that "low cost" here
means $80, not $800 like I'd assumed.

[http://www.itworld.com/article/2980018/pioneer-harnessing-
la...](http://www.itworld.com/article/2980018/pioneer-harnessing-laserdisc-
tech-for-low-cost-lidar.html)

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johnm1019
Sounds very interesting. After reading the press release though, I can't find
any references to MEMS or why/how this is better than existing LIDAR sensors.
Any other resources OP?

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Symmetry
Generally LIDARs work by rotating a mirror that the laser bounces off of
giving you a 2D plane or cone where you can detect things. Super expensive
LIDARs like the one on the Google car use a number of cones with different
angles to approximate a 3D system and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Other
systems like the ones you see in the DARPA challenge might rotate the plane of
the LIDAR through a full circle, but that takes a while.

Spinning mirrors are also somewhat delicate which can be a problem for
automotive applications.

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Animats
Exactly. That expensive rotating Velodyne thing is a research tool, not a
production auto part. Production cars need better, preferably with no big
moving parts. The Pioneer MEMS device qualifies (the moving parts are at IC
scale). The new Kinect is a no-moving-parts 3D LIDAR. The Advanced Scientific
Concepts flash LIDAR is also a good 3D LIDAR, usable outdoors in daylight. It
costs about $100K because it's hand-made by physicists in Santa Barbara for
DOD and Space-X, but the technology isn't inherently expensive.

The Pioneer press release doesn't say much. The usual specs are X and Y
pixels, field of view, and range, none of which they give.

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TD-Linux
Neat, it's too bad they seem to be tying it into some awful software and
mapping system. Just sell the part that you're good at and let other people do
the software!

