Pudu Robotics (普渡科技), a leading delivery robot supplier, has partnered with SmitSense (国微感知), a domestic manufacturer of sensors, to strengthen the capacity of its robots in positioning and navigation in a working environment.
According to a press release on the tie-up between the two firms, Shenzhen-based SmitSense has provided Pudu, also headquartered in the southern tech hub, with an undisclosed number of its 01A series of high-precision lidars.
Equipped with lidars, Pudu’s robots, mainly adopted by restaurant owners, can achieve a set of functions such as real-time positioning, smart obstacle detection and avoidance and autonomous navigation.
SmitSense said its lidars feature high accuracy, long mapping distance and a smaller size, making it easier to integrate it within a service robot.
Specifically, the firm’s lidar can reach up to 50m in the case the objects in its way have a reflectivity of 70%.
It also comes with a 0.06° max resolution and an accuracy of ±2CM. Combined with 60,000 laser beams projected every second and smart filtering algorithms, the lidar can identify tiny hurdles within a large expanse of area, so as to avoid them.
Equipped with advanced optical designs, the lidar also overcomes limits to realize detection at point-blank range, while leaving no blind spot undetected.
This proves important as zero-blind-spot detection enables identification of moving objects in the vicinity in a timely fashion. This way, the service robot won’t clash into them.
Apart from being used on EVs to allow for autonomous driving, lidars have also found wider adoption in the robotic space.
According to SmitSense, it has bet on lidars, flexible pressure sensors and other types of smart sensors. Clients mainly span sectors such as e-skin, AGV/AMR, service robot, smart transportation, smart logistics, size measurement, and security checks.
