In which scenarios are LiDAR sensors applied

Radar is not unfamiliar to many people, but LiDAR may not be heard much. With the continuous development and popularization of laser technology, in recent years, Google, Tesla and other unmanned driving technologies have been exposed, and LiDAR has also received widespread attention. It can be seen in the fields of unmanned aircraft, 3D printing, VR/AR and so on.

LiDAR, that is, light detection and measurement, is a system that integrates three technologies: laser, global positioning system (GPS) and inertial navigation system (INS). It is used to obtain data and generate accurate DEM (digital elevation model). . In terms of working principle, there is no fundamental difference from microwave radar, but compared with microwave radar, it has the characteristics of high resolution, good concealment, strong anti-active interference ability, good low-altitude detection performance, small size and light weight. The function of LiDAR is to accurately measure the position (distance and angle), movement state (speed, vibration and attitude) and shape of the target, and detect, identify, distinguish and track the target. Eg:

LiDAR can help robots understand the surrounding map information in an unknown environment, provide good environmental awareness for subsequent positioning and navigation, and even human-computer interaction, and promote the process of robot intelligence.

Robotics field-help robots realize autonomous positioning and navigation

Autonomous positioning and navigation is an indispensable technology for robots to realize autonomous walking. No matter what type of robot, as long as it involves autonomous movement, it needs to perform navigation and positioning in its walking environment. However, traditional positioning and navigation methods are low in intelligence. The problem of positioning and navigation was not solved. Until the emergence of LiDAR, this problem was resolved to a large extent. The positioning and navigation technology adopted by the robot is based on the LiDAR SLAM, and multi-sensor fusion solutions such as vision and inertial navigation are added to help the robot. It can realize tasks such as autonomous map building, path planning, and autonomous obstacle avoidance. It is currently the most stable and reliable positioning and navigation method with long service life and low cost of subsequent reconstruction.

Autonomous vehicle field-autonomously perceive the road environment and plan routes

In the field of unmanned vehicles, LiDAR is mainly based on multi-line numbers, and its role is equivalent to that in the field of robots. It mainly helps the car to autonomously perceive the road environment, automatically plan the driving route, and control the vehicle to reach the predetermined target. How does LiDAR help cars identify intersections and directions? The technology used by LiDAR is flight time, which calculates the relative distance between the target and itself based on the turn-back time of the laser after encountering an obstacle. The laser beam can accurately measure the relative distance between the contour edge of the object in the field of view and the device. This contour information forms a so-called point cloud and draws a 3D environment map with an accuracy of centimeters, thereby improving the measurement accuracy.