Although the industry continues to be hot, the technical threshold of lidar itself and the performance requirements of car companies are very high. It is foreseeable that there will not be a situation similar to "as long as you enter the market, there will be meat." As the process of large-scale applications accelerates, fierce competition will inevitably eliminate a number of manufacturers that are not deep in the moat, and there will also be 5 to 10 large-scale lidar companies gaining a foothold in the future market.
Today, Xiaohui will take everyone to "dismantle" a LiDAR to see what kind of LiDAR can support the manufacturer's confidence in the "mass production on the car" competition!
Precise perception creates "the eyes of autonomous driving"
Excellent perception ability is the basic condition for a lidar product to be truly used in autonomous vehicles. Specifically, Only products that have outstanding performance in the range, resolution, field of view, frame rate and other angles are eligible to become the core necessary sensors for the autonomous driving perception system.
Long range measurement can solve the "visible" problem of autonomous vehicles, and is a prerequisite for the normal performance of the excellent overall perception ability of lidar. In the real driving environment, especially in the high-speed driving state, the autonomous driving perception system needs the lidar to provide sufficient distance measurement to obtain the road condition information ahead.
High resolution is also an indispensable quality for an excellent lidar, and the resolution directly determines whether the lidar can "see clearly". Take the C-Fans series of car-level front-mounted solid-state lidars independently developed by Surestar as an example. With an ultra-high resolution of 0.1°x0.1°,can accurately capture the location information of pedestrians and vehicles at a distance of 200m, and easily realize large-scale and long-distance area monitoring. Compared with human eyesight, even millimeter-wave radar and other environmental monitoring sensors, they are more "observant."
Comparison of the effect of C-Fans lidar vehicle position point information capture at different distances
The field of view is also very important for a lidar whose target is to "get on the car." The large field of view can not only reduce the vehicle's requirements for the number of lidar installations, and better meet the needs of large-scale applications, but also help autonomous vehicles realize the "have eyes in the back of your head". The C-Fans series lidar realizes full control of the surrounding road conditions during driving with its omni-directional field of view. For difficult driving scenarios such as unprotected left turns, the vehicle or pedestrian on the right can be well taken care of.
The frame rate is also a non-negligible item in the sensing performance parameters of lidar. In the state of high-speed driving, the disposal time left by most emergencies for vehicles has exceeded the limit of human physiological function, while the ultra-high frame rate of the C-Fans lidar sports camera level can calmly deal with dangerous road conditions such as high-speed sudden brakes and ghost probes within the response window time, and transfer the data to the vehicle control system to respond in time to ensure driving safety.
Overall capacity to support mass production
Running in a real road environment itself contains many tests for lidar. In addition to perception performance, a lidar product is really loaded on a car, but also requires the overall ability without shortcomings.
First of all, the size and weight of the lidar can not be too large, which is related to whether the installation position of the lidar will affect the shape of the vehicle. In the era of mass production, both car companies and car owners will be more inclined to vehicles in which the various sensors of the perception system can be perfectly embedded in the body.
Early solutions for "autonomous vehicles equipped with lidar"
Surestar has made great achievements in the light and miniaturization of lidar. The car-gauge solid-state front-mounted lidar under Surestar’s navigation product line, C-Fans-32, weighs only more than 500 grams.In terms of volume, even compared with a bottle of ordinary mineral water, it still looks very "petite", which can well meet the needs of being embedded in the body.
The real driving environment is no better than the laboratory and test site. Vehicles often face the common test of many environmental factors at the same time. Product operation stability and environmental adaptability are also an important part of the overall capability of lidar. The power consumption of lidar also needs attention. Low power consumption can effectively enhance the stability of the entire autopilot system.
Take the C-Fans-256 mentioned above as an example. The latest solid-state lidar developed by Surestar has passed ISO16750, a total of 9 categories, and 31 tests. It can continue to work normally in harsh environments such as rugged bumps, and has successfully achieved a low power consumption of no more than 12W. The C-Fans-32, which is the same series, is currently the only LiDAR product that has passed the “intrinsically safe” certification. It can ensure the safe and stable operation of the equipment even in flammable and explosive high-risk environments such as coal mines.
Comprehensive strength to shape the "golden sign"
In addition to perception and overall performance, the comprehensive strength of the manufacturer that develops and manufactures it is also a strong support for determining whether a lidar is eligible for large-scale commercial applications and gaining a firm foothold in the market.
The first thing to bear the brunt is the company’s R&D strength, which is not only a natural endorsement of the performance of its own products, but also means that its products have the possibility of continuous optimization and continuous evolution to always meet the higher requirements of car companies.
In the context of R&D strength, whether it has independent intellectual property rights is particularly important for judging the overall strength of a lidar manufacturer. Mastering the intellectual property rights of core devices is equivalent to truly mastering production, so that costs can be well controlled and greater advantages can be obtained when competing with other companies.
Since its establishment, Surestar has always adhered to the research and development and exploration of lidar technology, and realized the chipization of the core module of lidar signal processing. A total of 24 chips in 5 categories were independently developed, and the core devices were completely independent and controllable. It has repeatedly overcome difficult problems from the technical perspectives of optical-mechanical structure, laser transceiver, signal processing, manufacturing process, chipization, and lightness and miniaturization. A micro-rotating mirror architecture is proposed to make a large-field, long-range, high-resolution, low-cost car-gauge lidar a reality.
In addition, professional and complete after-sales service is also a "key capability" that is easily overlooked in the comprehensive strength of lidar manufacturers. Relying on the accumulation of more than ten years in the laser radar field, Surestar has built a mature after-sales technical support team to provide customers with professional and systematic after-sales training services, and respond to customers' technical needs around the clock, bringing continuity, batch, stability and precision to each customer's project.
Excellent comprehensive strength has shaped the "golden sign" of Surestar, a domestic lidar. When the tide of high-end autonomous driving is raging and the lidar track is more turbulent in the future, Surestar will surely obtain the lidar "mass production on the car" with its excellent product performance, outstanding service quality, and outstanding research and development capabilities. It firmly occupies a place that cannot be ignored in the future market.(www.isurestar.net)