Robotic Eyes! Riegl USA LIDAR Plays a Pivotal Role in Robot Vision for DARPA Grand Challenge Teams.
Robotic Eyes! Riegl USA LIDAR plays a pivotal role in Robot Vision for DARPA Grand Challenge Teams.
Primm, Nevada-Riegl Lidar scanners will be used by seven DARPA Grand Challenge Teams in this year's 175 mile race of autonomous ground vehicles. The seven teams include Gray Team, Intelligent Vehicle Safety Technologies (Desert Tortoise and Desert Hare), Red Team (CMU), Red Team Too (CMU), Team Cal Tech, and The Mitre Meteorites.
The Riegl Lidar scanners provide critical vision of the world around the robot. This data helps the vehicle move over and around terrain and obstacles, both natural and man-made.
Riegl Lidar scanners are ideal for the DARPA Grand Challenge. These scanners withstand the rugged topology of the desert Southwest while using advanced signaling to enhance performance in dust and precipitation. The teams using Riegl Lidar scanners will benefit from long range and high speed scan rates as well as 3D mobile mapping capabilities. Seven teams chose Riegl Lidar for these ideal features where a "not-so-ideal" rugged 175 mile course can take its toll on even the most seasoned instruments.
Lidar Concept
The Lidar system sends a pulse of light out (typically 8,000 per second) and the return of the pulse creates a point with an XYZ position in the real world. The instruments make use of time-of-flight distance measurement principles with nanosecond infrared pulses and fast opto-mechanical beam scanning providing absolutely linear, unidirectional and parallel scan lines. These scan lines are then registered with other sensor information such as GPS to provide a "vision" of the real world. The ability to see the topography of roads or the identification of obstacles is quite apparent.
Robust Design
Riegl Lidar instruments are extremely rugged therefore ideally suited for installation in ground and air vehicles. A typical commercial application of the instruments is mounting on a helicopter to do topographic surveys of the earth. The shock, vibration, pressure and temperature demands of those environments have been instrumental in the design criteria for all Riegl instruments.
Signal processing advances enhance performance in conditions of dust and precipitation while removing "false positives"
All of Riegl's 3D scanners are available with advanced signal processing capabilities. This internal process
structures and organizes the return signals to achieve fidelity in the data and eliminate "false positives." The
RIEGL Last Pulse distance meters enable laser range measurements even under conditions of bad visibility.
In general, the distance meter provides the range of the last target, even if the measuring beam partially
hits or penetrates other targets before reaching that final target. Thus, the technique is addressed as Last Pulse
detection. The RIEGL LAST PULSE measuring technique ignores all undesired target echoes with the
exception of the desired echo from the last target. Targets can be distinguished if the range differs by at
least 2 meters. The Last Pulse measuring technique also provides the range difference between the last
target and the target next to the last (NTL). If there is only one target present, the range of that target is
given, and the range difference to the NTL target is set to zero.
Long Range and High Speed Scan Rates Means Faster Robots
The capability of the long range of vision (hundreds of meters) and the flexible scanning speeds allow the robot to operate in the high speed route confirmation for faster vehicle speeds or in the obstacle detection mode for collision avoidance. These capabilities are all user configurable for optimal performance.
Productivity Gains through Mobile Mapping
In addition to guidance, navigation and obstacle detection, Riegl scanners are also used to capture 3D scenes of the real world. The ability to dynamically use the Riegl Scanner mounted on a vehicle provides tremendous productivity gains in traditional commercial markets. This forecasts the coming revolution in autonomous vehicle control as evidenced by the DARPA Grand Challenge. 3D scanning of the world is revolutionizing traditional survey and providing high speed methodologies to numerous commercial applications.
Don't Forget about Safety
The Riegl Laser Scanner meets OSHA regulations for Workplace Safety and ANSI Class 1 eye safe requirements. Riegl's invisible beam will not distract motorists, workers or pedestrians.
About Riegl
Riegl's headquarters are located in Horn, Austria. Riegl has always been dedicated to the highest performance, quality, reliability and longevity of its products and services. Strict adherence to international quality assurance standards is a matter of course for Riegl. Riegl's 3D terrestrial laser scanner business is based upon the company's 28 year heritage in research, development and manufacture of time-of-flight based optical radar systems. Our products are used for ground based and airborne survey, industrial process control, altimetry and aerospace applications.
Riegl's many different 3D scanners offer a wide array of performance characteristics and serve as a platform for continuing innovation in the 3D laser scanning business. An example is the integration of the 3D laser scanner with the Photogrammetric camera resulting in the synergistic benefits of greater speed and higher accuracies.
Today Riegl is recognized as the performance leader in the mining, industrial process control, civil infrastructure, mobile mapping and other large scale asset markets. The instruments are well known for their ruggedness and reliability under demanding environmental conditions.
More Information
Jim van Rens
Riegl USA, Inc.
7035 Grand National Drive
Suite 100
Orlando, FL 32819
Phone 407 248 9927
Fax 407 248 2636
Cell 321 689 3521
www.rieglusa.com
jvanrens@rieglusa.com
Serving the North American Market since 1993
