DJI brought its wide product and solutions portfolio to CES 2020 this week, including its full drone lineup, handheld Imaging systems and an introduction of Livox. Livox Technology Company Limited (Livox), an independent company that is revolutionizing the lidar sensor industry. Backed by DJI’s deep expertise in sensor innovation and hardware manufacturing, Livox is introducing two new sensors that offer a groundbreaking new scanning method to deliver better sensing performance at a fraction of the cost of traditional lidar units. By making lidar easier and more affordable to integrate into products and applications, Livox sensors will enable new innovations across a broad range of applications from autonomous driving to smart cities, mapping, mobile robotics and more.
“Over the past 13 years, it has been DJI’s core mission to make advanced technology easy-to-use, safe and accessible, which we have accomplished most notably through our leading consumer and commercial drone product portfolio,” said Roger Luo, President at DJI. “Livox was born from that same mission and passion for innovation. It is a dedicated team, first incubated within DJI, whose objective is to expand the application of our core technologies, and break barriers to the autonomous world, by working with the thriving ecosystem of innovators in mobile robotics to autonomous driving and beyond.”
Pioneering Solutions to Break Industry Barriers
Livox was first formed in 2016 by a group of engineers within DJI’s Open Innovation Program, who developed an innovative optoelectronic design and pioneered a new scanning method – called a Non-Repetitive Scanning pattern – which offers significant benefits over the traditional Repetitive Linear Scanning pattern offered by other lidar sensor providers.
The environment scanned by a Livox sensor increases with longer integration time as the laser explores new spaces within its Field of View (or FOV). As seen in the image below, a Livox Mid-40 or Mid-100 sensor generates a unique flower-like scanning pattern to create a 3D image of the surrounding environment. Image fidelity increases rapidly over time. In comparison, conventional lidar sensors use horizontal linear scanning methods that run the risk of blind spots, causing some objects in their FOV to remain undetected regardless of how long the scan lasts. The unique non-repetitive scanning method of the Livox lidar sensors enables nearly 100% FOV coverage with longer integration time which does not exist in any market alternatives today at this cost.
The Horizon has a detection range of up to 260 meters with a horizontal FOV (HFOV) of 81.7° which can cover 4 road lanes at a distance of 10 meters and its FOV coverage ratio is comparable with a 64-line mechanical lidar at the integration time of 0.1 sec. Using just five Horizon units enable full 360° coverage with only 5% of a cost of a 64-line mechanical lidar.
The Tele-15 can scan 99.8% area within its 15° circular FOV at 0.1s which outperforms 128-line mechanical lidar sensors currently available on the market and can successfully detect an object up to 500 meters away, which is hardly achievable by human eyes or other sensors at this cost.
Unique Optoelectronic Design Enables Low Cost, High-Quality Mass Production
Through its unique optoelectronic design, Livox sensors are able to provide a comparable solution at 1% of the price of current market alternatives. This innovative design requires fewer high-cost components in the sensor and does not use any immature and expensive laser emitters or MEMS scanners. With the use of its patented DL-Pack technology, Livox sensors are calibrated automatically, enabling better production yield while requiring fewer specialized technical labor hours. This allows Livox to return the cost benefits to its customers and broaden overall use applications as this technology becomes more prevalent.
“The growth potential of the lidar industry has been hindered for too long by ultra-high costs and slow manufacturing rates,” said Henri Deng, Global Marketing Director at Livox. “Livox seeks to change this by providing access to high quality lidar systems that are easily integrated into a wide array of different use applications. Through our technology, we hope to be the catalyst for the rapid adoption of lidar in the quickly growing industries of autonomous driving, mobile robotics, mapping, surveying and more.”
Today, more than 75% of Livox’ 200 workforce are engineers who develop 3D sensing technology for various environmental conditions. In the past 3 years alone, Livox has applied for more than 240 patents for its unique technology and designs of lidar sensors. Livox products are available in many countries and regions such as the US, Canada, the European Union, Japan, China and Australia.
To learn more about Livox, please visit www.livoxtech.com or visit their booth at CES located at the Westgate, Booth Number 833.
About DJI’s Open Innovation Program
Livox demonstrates DJI’s commitment to reimagining what is possible. Through its Open Innovation Initiative, DJI provides senior guidance, resources and financial support to empower pioneers in its organization who proactively seek novel ways to solve industry challenges with new technology that is accessible to larger audiences.
Through this initiative, DJI will continue to identify new markets and business opportunities around the globe, exploring how its core technology and expanding product portfolio could be used in combination with other technologies to provide a wider range of possible applications in the world today.
DJI at CES 2020
DJI will be showcasing a full lineup of its leading products for attendees to get hands on time with including the new Mavic Mini, Osmo Action, Osmo Mobile 3, Ronin-SC as well as the Phantom 4 Pro V2. The booth will be located at the Las Vegas Convention Center in the South Hall 2, #26402. A flight cage will be demoing the latest DJI drones, including the brand new Mavic Mini, Mavic 2 along with the RoboMaster S1, DJI’s first educational robot. Attendees at the DJI booth can enter to win a daily raffle with prizes including Mavic Mini, Osmo Action and RoboMaster S1 and also participate in workshops.
– January 8, 11am and 2:30pm PST: Roie Galitz will lecture on how to use Mavic Mini and Mavic 2 to capture high quality content.
– January 9, 11am and 2:30pm PST: Make.Art.Now will discuss the use of Osmo Pocket and Osmo Action in their production lineup.
Wayne Bake, Director of Public Safety Integration at DJI will be joining a panel discussion regarding, “Drones Making an Impact Globally.” The panel will be held on Thursday January 9 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, N253 from 10:15-11:15am. For additional information on CES panels or to register, please go: here.Â
