It seems like the wires are always abuzz with Velodyne news, from agreements with mapping company Kaarta and collaborations with Outsight, to other applications including power line monitoring to autonomous vehicle projects. In their latest agreement, Velodyne will join forces with Emesent in a multi-year sales agreement. Emesent is best known for its Hovermap mobile scanning system that is deployed in GPS-denied environments and is capable of autonomous flight.
The agreement includes a multi-year agreement for Velodyne to provide the Puck LITE sensors to Emesent, who will us them to power the Hovermap system. Hovermap, which can be hand-held or mounted to a drone, uses Puck LITE lidar as its primary perception and mapping sensor. Equally capable above ground or underground, indoors or out, Hovermap combines advanced collision avoidance and autonomous flight technologies to map challenging, inaccessible areas such as mines, caves, and tunnels. Hovermap has a colorization feature for its 3D point clouds that brings additional context for visualization and analysis.
Hovermap provides high-quality data capture for the mining, construction/infrastructure, forestry, defense, oil and gas industries.
“The Velodyne Puck LITE lidar is an extraordinary sensor for mobile mapping systems due to its compact size, light weight and high performance,” said Dr. Stefan Hrabar, Emesent CEO.
“The sensor helped us create game-changing technology that can obtain vital data in challenging environments in real time without risking the machine or operator safety.”
“Hovermap provides an excellent showcase of how Puck LITE’s 360-degree capture capability enables companies to produce high quality, accurate, georeferenced point cloud data.”
Velodyne Puck LITE sensors deliver a high-resolution image to measure and analyze indoor and outdoor environments. Designed for applications that require a sensor with a low weight and compact size, Puck LITE delivers outstanding resolution and performance for mobile and UAV/drone applications. It provides a full 360-degree environmental view to deliver real-time 3D data.
With Velodyne continuing to push to be the providers of the underlying technology for several mobile mapping companies, they seem well positioned to continue to expand the use of SLAM technology to new industries – including expanding its reach in difficult, GPS-denied areas or those areas that are difficult to map due to human hazards.
