Autonomous vehicles typically come equipped with lidar systems that use pulsed lasers to map objects and scenes in order to allow autonomous robots, vehicles and drones to navigate their environment.
Kyoto University researchers have developed a non-mechanical 3D lidar system, which fits in the palm of the hand, that can be used to measure the distance of poorly reflective objects and automatically track the motion of these objects.
“With our lidar system, robots and vehicles will be able to reliably and safely navigate dynamic environments without losing sight of poorly reflective objects such as black metallic cars,” said lead researcher Susumu Noda. “Incorporating this technology into cars, for example, would make autonomous driving safer.”
The new system is possible thanks to a unique light source the researchers developed called a dually modulated photonic-crystal laser (DM-PCSEL). Because this light source is chip-based it could eventually enable...