At the 2018 Global Smart Logistics Summit (GSLS) in Hangzhou on May 31st, Alibaba’s Cainiao and RoboSense jointly announced the G Plus, which they say is the world’s first unmanned logistics vehicle integrated with solid-state LiDAR.
The product represents a “black technology” (highly futuristic) application in self-driving. Three LiDAR sensors strengthen 3D perception for extremely clear visualization of pedestrians and objects, and enable cutting-edge route planning capabilities even in very complex road and traffic scenarios.
The solid-state LiDAR developed by RoboSense, RS-LiDAR-M1Pre, was first introduced at CES 2018. It combines a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) micromirror with a minimum number of laser emitters and receivers for environmental scanning with a high vertical angular resolution of 0.2°. Compared with traditional mechanical LiDAR, this new solid-state LiDAR solution requires much less hardware, reduces training costs, and presents better stability and reliability.
RoboSense will supply Cainiao with solid-state LiDAR for unmanned logistics vehicles. “Solid-state LiDAR could be well-suited for mass-produced autonomous logistics vehicles, and will reduce manufacturing cost by one-third,” says RoboSense Co-founder and COO Chunchao Qiu. “Cainiao and RoboSense agree low cost and high efficiency are key to self-driving vehicles in logistics. We hope our strong cooperation will further promote the mass production of self-driving vehicles and unmanned logistics in the near future.”
Alibaba’s Cainiao E.T. Logistics Lab’s Chunhui Zhang said they are “planning to put 100,000 unmanned units into production in the next three years.”
Cainiao also announced an unmanned logistics project, “Hump” (Tuofeng in Chinese), which aims to advance mass production of autonomous devices. Cainiao will collaborate with industry and academic stakeholders on the initiative, with RoboSense focusing on LiDAR.
RoboSense is a global leading supplier of LiDAR solutions for autonomous vehicles. The company was founded in 2014 by a team of Harbin Institute of Technology PhD researchers, and has successfully built an integrated system for production, sales, and research of LiDAR in environment perception.
The company’s research team combines LiDAR sensor solutions and 3D data processing algorithms with deep learning to create technology with environment perception abilities that can surpass those of the human eye.
Localization: Tingting Cao | Editor: Meghan Han, Michael Sarazen
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