3D lidar system improves safety of autonomous vehicles

Vehicles equipped with autonomous driving capabilities could be made safer with a new version of lidar, known as flash lidar, which combines conventional beam-scanning techniques with a newer, 3D approach. 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. Because this light source is chip-based it could eventually enable the development of an on-chip all-solid-state 3D lidar system. “Our DM-PCSEL-based 3D lidar system lets us range highly reflective and poorly reflective objects simultaneously,” said Noda. They also showed that the system can automatically recognise poorly reflective objects and track their movement using selective illumination.