Recently it was announced that Volvo will install LiDAR systems onto all new vehicles to help identify potential dangers at extreme distances. What advantages does LiDAR present over other sensing technologies, what exactly did Volvo announce, and what other sensor technologies exist that could help vehicle safety?
What advantages does LiDAR present over other sensing technologies?
From a story in Electropages by Robin Mitchell.
When it comes to vehicular safety, practising a few simple rules can dramatically reduce fatalities while also reducing the chances of incidences occurring. For example, those driving BMWs have a special lever on the side of the wheel called an indicator which informs other drivers of lane-changing intention, while those in Land Rovers can utilise dials to point headlights down to prevent blinding other drivers. At the same time, the average driver can utilise the “dutch reach”, which forces drivers to look at their wing mirrors before opening doors and keeping phones in the backseats will remove any temptation for the driver to take their eyes off the road.
But even the most alert humans are prone to errors and mistakes, and these errors are often amplified during bad driving conditions such as low light conditions, rain, and fog. In these cases, technology becomes the only practical method for avoiding accidents and fatalities, which is why vehicles have seen numerous advances over the past decade which help to provide early warning systems to drivers.
LiDAR is one technology that shows a tremendous amount of promise thanks to its long-range ability while simultaneously being able to operate in poor conditions. Like RADAR, LiDAR is a time of flight measurement whereby the time for a laser beam to hit its target and reflect is measured using a high-speed microcontroller. Considering that the speed of light is known, the distance between the reflection and the vehicle becomes a simple case of speed multiplied by time.
Since LiDAR systems can detect objects at great distances (in excess of 100 meters), it can provide a vehicle with ample time to detect an obstacle that may otherwise be too difficult to see. Furthermore, the combination of 3D maps produced by LiDAR and AI can even allow vehicles to recognise objects in the road and try to characterise what those objects are. Finally, the combination of historical data can allow LiDAR to determine the relative speed of detected objects and thus only react to objects headed towards the vehicle.
For the complete article on Volvo Will Install Lidar CLICK HERE.
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