LIDAR

Mapping the inside of cramped, difficult-to-reach areas can be helpful to people such as plant operators, but drones flown in such places could easily crash. The LiDAR- and cage-equipped Elios 3 quadcopter was designed with that challenge in mind.

A landmark study is reporting the discovery of nearly 500 ancient monuments in Mexico using airborne laser mapping. The newly discovered sites are thought to date back at least 2,500 years, in between the Olmec and Maya civilizations.

DJI is bringing its stabilization know-how to cinematic content creation with the launch of the Ronin 4D system, which rolls a new full-frame gimbal camera, 4-axis stabilization, a LiDAR focusing, and video transmission/control into a single package.

Autonomous vehicles operate in a complex environment, and recognizing traffic signs is an important part of that. A new microstructured material reflects light in rainbow rings, which can make traffic signs easier for computer vision systems to read.

Samsung is claiming a few world firsts with its latest robot vacuum cleaner. The Jet Bot AI+ is said to be the first to feature an active stereo-type 3D sensor for object detection, and the first equipped with Intel AI for object recognition.

Airtext has released a simple laser altimeter for small aircraft to make approaches and landings safer. The app-controlled Land-DAR (Land Distance and Ranging) is configured through an app and calls out altitudes as the aircraft descends.

Airbus is expanding the capabilities of its Flightlab helicopter designed to test out next-generation aviation technologies, by incorporating some advanced hardware geared toward autonomous flight, including LiDAR sensors from Luminar.

Self-driving cars typically use both LiDAR and radar to detect obstacles on the road ahead, yet neither system is adept at identifying vehicles through fog. Now, though, engineers have discovered that radar is good at the task if it's "doubled up."

There are now several robots that are designed to accompany and assist ground-based army troops. Those machines could soon have a new ability – detecting changes in the environment that may be missed by soldiers.

Decades ago, Arthur C. Clarke envisioned an "underwater telescope" that would allow users to look down from the surface of the ocean, into its inky depths. Well, such a capability has come a step closer to reality, utilizing existing technology.

Volvo has today announced that its next-generation of vehicles will come with the option of LiDAR sensors built into the roof, which will be used to guide the cars down stretches of highway all on their own.

Next-gen 3D cameras are on the way, capable of rendering spatial images in unprecedented resolution and speed. The MegaX research camera captures single-photon light levels at up to 24,000 frames per second, paving the way for safer autonomous cars.