3D-Lidar From the Apollo mission to key technology for the industry

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Blickfeld GmbH

FAULHABER Drive Systems

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The origins of Lidar technology date back to the Apollo-15 mission. Lidar uses laser pulses to measure distances and gather three-dimensional information. Today, it is indispensable for autonomous driving.

Dr. Mathias Müller is founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Blickfeld.

Originally developed in the early 1960s and first used effectively in the Apollo-15 mission in 1971, Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) uses laser pulses for optical distance measurement and provides precise three-dimensional information that creates added value in numerous application fields—from geography to logistics to the security industry.

In industrial applications that require high range and accuracy, solid-state 3D Lidar sensors are often used. These work according to the Time-of-Flight (ToF) principle: A diode emits laser pulses, which are picked up again by a detector after reflecting off objects. The light's time of flight is used for distance measurement by proprietary software. The sensor emits several hundred thousand laser pulses per second, which are deflected over a large field of view via MEMS mirrors (MEMS: Micro-Electro-Mechanical System), thus creating precise 3D images of the environment, so-called point clouds.

This technology captures the spatial location and shape of objects regardless of surface material and environmental conditions, enabling detailed reconstruction. The term 'Solid State' refers to the fact that the technology is semiconductor-based and does not require moving parts. Therefore, Lidar sensors are robust, compact, and cost-effective, making them ideal for many commercial applications.

How Lidar technology has evolved

The development of laser technology in the 1960s laid the foundation for Lidar. Lidar's first application was in terrain mapping for air and space travel, especially for the topographic mapping of forests, ice surfaces, oceans, and the atmosphere. Lidar's first major public appearance was in 1971 when NASA used the technology on the Apollo 15 mission to measure the surface of the moon. About ten years later, Lidar was also used in the surveying of Mars.

Until the 1980s, there were no major advancements in Lidar in air and space travel, mainly due to insufficient navigation and positioning accuracy because of the lack of commercial GPS systems at the time. When GPS applications and efficient satellite communication for data transmission emerged in the 1990s, they paved the way for widespread use of Lidar, such as in airborne photogrammetry, which takes pictures of the Earth's surface from the air and creates three-dimensional models and maps from them. Now the technical conditions had been created allowing Lidar to quickly play a crucial role in the precise capture of geodata and in its use in meteorology and atmospheric research. The short wavelength of the laser, which enables the detection of the smallest objects such as cloud particles and aerosols, is crucial for air and terrain mapping.

Lidar becomes indispensable in security technology

Lidar experienced a huge development and popularity boost among a wider audience in the early 2000s, which intensified even further in the 2010s. The main reason for the growing interest is that Lidar sensors are considered indispensable safety technology for driverless mobility, reliably scanning the surrounding environment in real-time, for example in automobiles, drones, and logistical transport systems. The early Lidar devices were generally large and bulky and required intensive maintenance due to the mechanical rotors needed for the all-round view. Many companies invested in research and development to make Lidar sensor technology suitable for lucrative practical use.

When Lidar made its entrance in the industry

Today, Lidar technology is more powerful, less prone to maintenance, and more affordable. On the one hand, the automotive industry benefits from this development, having already brought series models such as the Mercedes EQS with Lidar to market. On the other hand, additional fields of application in business and industry have emerged. Recently, for example, the following uses have been added:

Object detection in security systems: The detection of unauthorized intruding objects or persons in the security zones of company premises, power plants, or aircraft parking lots, independent of weather and light conditions, represents one of the most important factors for the reliability of security and alarm systems. But there is a conflict of interest: on the one hand, an alarm system must be set sensitive enough to reliably detect any intrusion into security zones. On the other hand, systems set so sensitively, if they cannot distinguish between the types of intruding objects, produce many false alarms. 3D Lidar technology identifies the type of intruders based on their size, thus reducing the number of false alarms significantly. Therefore, such Lidar sensors are ideally suited for the protection of critical infrastructure.

Volume capture of bulk materials: The ability to automate logistical processes depends heavily on the availability of digital data on material quantities and movements. A particular challenge is the digital representation of storage stock of bulk materials, which are used in large quantities in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry or the construction and agricultural sector. The stock of bulk goods can currently only be measured in real-time with a reasonable effort using 3D Lidar technology. By automatically transmitting the data into the logistics software, Lidar contributes to the creation of automated and overall more efficient material flow processes.

Optimization of pedestrian flows: Lidar-based applications offer significant advantages in the analysis of crowds (Crowd Analytics) to capture, understand, and make predictions about the spatial distribution of people over time, for example, at airports, in gastronomy, in retail, at transport hubs, in stadiums, and at music events. They enable the tracking of movement patterns in large and complex spaces, the accurate counting of individuals and objects, and the recording of dwell times. This data provides valuable insights, for example, for queue management, optimizing staff deployment, and improving customer satisfaction. Especially important is that Lidar data does not allow conclusions about individuals, making the technology ideally suited for use in public spaces.

The role software plays in Lidar applications

3D Lidar requires powerful hardware, but the software for interpreting the data is equally important. Up to now, Lidar sensors have transmitted the collected 3D data to an external computer, which analyses them using specialized software and maps the environment three-dimensionally. This process is greatly simplified with the Smart Sensor Qb2 from Blickfeld, as for the first time, the entire analysis software runs on the device.

In figurative terms, the eyes and brain are now in the same device, so the Qb2 outputs immediately usable data without further investments in computing hardware, additional wiring, and 3D analysis expertise. With the Qb2, companies can seamlessly transmit data using standard communication protocols like MQTT and programming interfaces into an IoT ecosystem or the cloud. There, they are immediately available for planning and controlling. Installation and operation are simple and cost-effective. This leads to advantages when multiple sensors are used in combination, such as on large areas, typically for volume capture of materials in mining or for the protection of solar parks.

New perspectives through 3D-Lidar data

Even though buzzwords like Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 have been on everyone's lips for many years, there are still many deficits in concrete implementation. For many techniques, high costs have to be faced, even though the concrete added value is not always immediately recognizable. The case is different with 3D-Lidar: users immediately feel a tangible benefit.

To pick up the examples from the beginning again:

• In the security area, the false alarm rate is significantly reduced by the use of 3D-Lidar sensors. This relieves the security staff and prevents the so-called "alarm fatigue". This occurs when so many false alarms are triggered that the staff no longer takes the alarms seriously and poses a fatal security threat.

• When companies capture their material stocks with 3D Lidar, they always have a reliable overview of their stocks, even with bulk goods, which are difficult to measure using other methods. High efficiency gains are possible, for example, by optimizing processes, reducing errors and failures, and more accurate inventory estimation. Blickfeld's customers appreciate the fact that they value their inventories without Lidar with an average error rate of 20%. That means, for example, they ordered ten trucks for a load, even though eight would have been sufficient.

• For the first time, 3D-Lidar provides detailed and simultaneously anonymised real-time data for the analysis of people flows, which can be evaluated immediately. This allows those responsible to intervene immediately, for example, before long queues at airports or dangerous traffic jams at music festivals occur.

3D Lidar has the potential to increase the level of digitization in companies and contribute to solving tasks with novel data that cannot be managed with other techniques. The advanced, robust, and cost-effective solid-state technology, combined with integrated analysis software, opens up a wide range of new applications in various industries and offers companies crucial efficiency and safety advantages. (heh)