Lidar: why measuring the measurement system is essential

摘要

Many experts believe lidar is one of the pivotal sensing technologies required to make partial to full autonomous vehicles possible. The most promising way seems to be combining lidar with other detection/ranging systems like cameras and radar products into a suite of detection and ranging systems allowing autonomous vehicles to use at least two independent redundant subsystems to provide high-resolution, 3D information about the surrounding environment with very low error rates. Lidar is not only a key driver in the development of autonomous vehicles, it also prevails in numerous other application sectors from all kinds of mapping, industrial automation/robotics and smart city to aerospace, security and defence sectors. Just recently, the discovery of hidden archeological sites in the middle of overgrown jungle or monitoring of air pollution in cities were hot topics in the media.