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VDK Release 2022.2: Introducing Autonomous Solution Development for Indoor Environments and Extending Support to Surround Lidars
Jun 06, 2022 | By Velodyne Lidar

The Vella Development Kit (VDK), along with our lidar sensors, advance Velodyne Lidar as a leading provider of end-to-end solutions that enable machines to see, understand and act on their environment.

Velodyne Lidar's VDK: Turning Data Into Action

The latest release of VDK brings perception capabilities for indoor environments and our surround lidar sensors. VDK allows customers to plug in our lidar with an off-the-shelf library of perception capabilities. It helps them save development time and engineering effort for bringing autonomous systems to market.

VDK for Indoor Environments

VDK now provides high-level perception outputs for indoor environments such as industrial sites and warehouses. These outputs include 3D object list, free-space and obstacle detection (powered by a 3D occupancy grid), lidar odometry and extrinsic calibration. VDK for indoor can be deployed on autonomous and surveillance systems such as automated ground vehicles (AGV) and intrusion detection easily with well-defined APIs.

Illustration: How object detection and an emergency braking system could work in a warehouse enrvironment

For example, a forklift or material handling company can use VDK to develop an emergency braking system using the software’s 3D occupancy grid feature for collision avoidance. The software also supports people detection and classification to further enhance system safety, which can help reduce accidents and human injuries.

Illustration: How object detection and collision avoidance could work in a warehouse environment

Many indoor industrial and robotics customers have expertise on hardware machinery but limited internal software engineering resources and short timelines for product release. Our VDK and sensors provide a full-stack solution so customers can focus on their own application domain.

The new indoor capability complements existing operating design domains (ODD) support that VDK provides for outdoor environments, such as highway and urban use cases used primarily by automotive and autonomous driving customers.

Support for Surround Lidar Sensors + Solid State

VDK also now supports our portfolio of surround lidar sensors, including the cost-effective Puck, versatile Ultra Puck and powerful Alpha Prime. These 360-degree view lidar sensors help autonomous systems see over wider field of view and range than traditional robotic technologies, making autonomy safer and more reliable. With this support, the users are able to choose the suitable sensor(s) for their application and use case. The existing and new users would be able plug-and-play VDK easily in their stack or application.

Velodyne Lidar's supported sensors for VDK

VDK already pairs with our solid state lidar, including Velarray M1600 and Velarray H800.

More Software Updates Coming!

We plan to continue to deliver quarterly updates to VDK. These enhancements will advance VDK with the latest hardware support and processing features that our perception software has to offer.

So watch this space to learn more about future releases. We are a one-stop shop for lidar solutions. You can depend on Velodyne to provide sensing and perception modules, accelerate time to market and save precious development dollars.

For more information on VDK, contact Velodyne Sales: 669.275.2526, [email protected].

Also, check out this video on how VDK works with our Velarray M1600 sensor here:

About Velodyne Lidar

Velodyne Lidar (Nasdaq: VLDR, VLDRW) ushered in a new era of autonomous technology with the invention of real-time surround view lidar sensors. Velodyne, a global leader in lidar, is known for its broad portfolio of breakthrough lidar technologies. Velodyne’s revolutionary sensor and software solutions provide flexibility, quality and performance to meet the needs of a wide range of industries, including robotics, industrial, intelligent infrastructure, autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Through continuous innovation, Velodyne strives to transform lives and communities by advancing safer mobility for all.

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