Eystein Maloy Stenberg of The Device Chronicle interviewed Velodyne Lidar executive Mircea Gradu on how Velodyne’s lidar technology is advancing road safety, and automotive and industrial robot perception.

Among the topics discussed was Velodyne’s commitment to improving pedestrian safety with applications such as Pedestrian Automated Emergency Braking (PAEB). Mircea noted how a lidar-based PAEB solution delivers superior performance in all lighting conditions over radar+camera-based systems.

The article quoted Mircea saying:

“The use case of Automatic Emergency Braking is well known to everybody who has vehicles on the road and they understand the relevance of this particular use case in order for this to be actually implemented. There is a need for legislation support and currently we are in the process of educating the community about this enhancement so that it can be brought to the current validation process.”

The interview also addressed how lidar-based solutions can advance safety beyond roadways. Mircea cited, as examples, warehouse and hospital settings where automated mobile robots (AMR) can use lidar to map those environments. He said AMRs can achieve “the same level of safety that you want on the road. You can think about PAEB being in an industrial context such as a forklift operating.”

Another topic the conversation covered was how lidar can help advance sustainability. Mircea discussed the Velabit – our smallest sensor – which addresses the cost, safety, and design challenges of autonomous solutions while delivering state-of-the-art performance. Mircea said:

“Embed-ability is important as power consumption relates to the form, shape and the weight of the vehicle. We developed a sensor that is extremely small and it meets all the requirements, it provides a very good perception and sensing, and very low power consumption.”