Velodyne’s Lidar sensor approaches Lidar imaging in a whole new way. Unlike
traditional single laser sensors that provide a trickle of data, the Velodyne
sensor uses 64 lasers to provide a comparable flood.
The spinning sensor fires its lasers at over 1.3 million times per second,
capturing distance pixels by timing how long it takes each pulse of light to
bounce off objects. The result is a rich, 360 degree 3-D point cloud that is
used for autonomous navigation, 3-D mapping, scene capture, and other
applications.
The sensor was used on 5 of the top 6 teams in the DARPA Urban Challenge race
for autonomous vehicles. It is currently in use capturing 3-D highway data
for multiple states in the U.S. Perhaps most notably it was used to capture
the outdoor scenes in the Radiohead video “House of Cards.”
This session gives a brief background of Velodyne and shows its new sensor,
called the HDL-64E, in action.
