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This is great news. Quanergy was supposed to be selling solid state sensors by now, but they missed their deadline and have changed their answer to "soon." Re

This is great news. Quanergy was supposed to be selling solid state sensors by now, but they missed their deadline and have changed their answer to "soon." Regardless, so long as somebody is selling the sensors for cheap, it's fantastic news for robotics. It also opens up possibilities for selling to consumers as there could be phones that include these sensors (or more likely they're sold separately as dongles). Suddenly your phones would be able to do SLAM and make 3D maps of your surroundings. That would make furniture shopping a lot easier. I could also see some cool applications with augmented reality.

alex_hirner 10y ago
I wonder which "SLAM for the masses" technology will become dominant. Do you have any thoughts what's missing in google's project Tango?
- zump 10y ago
  Range.
- pierotofy 10y ago
  Accuracy. The drift is too large.
- tgb 10y ago
  I'm still disappointed that Kinect didn't usher in that era already.
  - Symmetry 10y ago
    Apple bought the company making those sensors and they aren't available any more unless you know where in China they tend to "fall off the backs of trucks".
    - robotresearcher 10y ago
      Equivalent sensors are available from various mainstream manufacturers retail for cheap.... https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Kinect-Sensor-for-Xbox-One/productID.2267482500 https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Kinect-... https://www.asus.com/ca-en/3D-Sensor/Xtion_PRO_LIVE/ https://www.asus.com/ca-en/3D-Sensor/Xtion_PRO_LIVE/ (launching soon:) http://click.intel.com/intel-realsense-developer-kit-r200.html http://click.intel.com/intel-realsense-developer-kit-r200.ht...
  - robotresearcher 10y ago
    Texture projectors don't work outdoors in bright sunlight. It's a fundamental limitation of the tech.
michaelt 10y ago
there could be phones that include these sensors Maybe at some point, but mobile phone applications need sensors that are small, light, low-power, less than $100 - wheras automotive LIDARs have different requirements (range like the stopping distance of a car, powerful enough lasers to operate in direct sunlight, scanning a mostly-flat surface, can use several watts and weigh a kilo or more, can cost $200+ if they need to). If you have a great business plan that needs 3D consumer-priced 3D scanning, I'd start with a Kinect if I were you :)
donquichotte 10y ago
The Quanergy website also no longer contains any information about the price of their modules, originally quoted at a ridiculously low 250$ (100k batch size), making me afraid that their product might be vapourware. Nonetheless, progress appears to be made in the area. The article states that "Google originally had to pay US $73,000 for each unit, itself a rotating array of 64 laser beams". Today a hobbyist can just buy an 1D LIDAR for 150-200$ or a 2D LIDAR for 450$ on seeedstudio.
- cr0sh 10y ago
  > Today a hobbyist can just buy an 1D LIDAR for 150-200$ or a 2D LIDAR for 450$ on seeedstudio. If yer not picky, you can generally pick up a cheap "repair part" or "surplus" Neato 2D Lidar unit from ebay, for about $100.00 or so. They are generally pulled from broken Neato vacuum robots. Alternatively, a used Neato (or sometimes even a new one) can generally be had for under $450.00 (plus you get a ton of other robot experimenting parts!). Another option for hobbyists are used SICK serial-port lidars; I've picked those up for around $300.00 off ebay. They run on 12-24 volts (great for vehicles and electric wheelchair-based platforms), and use RS-232 or RS-422 for communications (where it becomes a PITA is when they are set to the RS-422 protocol - because then you need a special adaptor - and not all of the adaptors work - to reprogram it - using a piece of software that runs on Windows NT4). They are very robust units, though. Big, and heavy (not for small robots - not at all; these units are about the size of a coffee maker). There are three main types - each with a different color case (yellow, blue, and grey). One of them is an "area coverage" only sensor (and doesn't have a way to output scan data), while the other two are more generalized (at least, this is what I recall - I probably have some details mixed up). These are on the used market because companies are phasing them out, I believe, for the newer ethernet based models.
- frik 10y ago
  the 2D LIDAR is of a vacuum cleaning robot, it has a range of 5m, a toy that cannot be compared with a automotive LIDAR that has 150+m range

alex_hirner 10y ago

I wonder which "SLAM for the masses" technology will become dominant. Do you have any thoughts what's missing in google's project Tango?

zump 10y ago
Range.
pierotofy 10y ago
Accuracy. The drift is too large.
tgb 10y ago
I'm still disappointed that Kinect didn't usher in that era already.
- Symmetry 10y ago
  Apple bought the company making those sensors and they aren't available any more unless you know where in China they tend to "fall off the backs of trucks".
  - robotresearcher 10y ago
    Equivalent sensors are available from various mainstream manufacturers retail for cheap.... https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Kinect-Sensor-for-Xbox-One/productID.2267482500 https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Kinect-... https://www.asus.com/ca-en/3D-Sensor/Xtion_PRO_LIVE/ https://www.asus.com/ca-en/3D-Sensor/Xtion_PRO_LIVE/ (launching soon:) http://click.intel.com/intel-realsense-developer-kit-r200.html http://click.intel.com/intel-realsense-developer-kit-r200.ht...
- robotresearcher 10y ago
  Texture projectors don't work outdoors in bright sunlight. It's a fundamental limitation of the tech.

michaelt 10y ago

there could be phones that include these sensors Maybe at some point, but mobile phone applications need sensors that are small, light, low-power, less than $100 - wheras automotive LIDARs have different requirements (range like the stopping distance of a car, powerful enough lasers to operate in direct sunlight, scanning a mostly-flat surface, can use several watts and weigh a kilo or more, can cost $200+ if they need to). If you have a great business plan that needs 3D consumer-priced 3D scanning, I'd start with a Kinect if I were you :)

donquichotte 10y ago

The Quanergy website also no longer contains any information about the price of their modules, originally quoted at a ridiculously low 250$ (100k batch size), making me afraid that their product might be vapourware. Nonetheless, progress appears to be made in the area. The article states that "Google originally had to pay US $73,000 for each unit, itself a rotating array of 64 laser beams". Today a hobbyist can just buy an 1D LIDAR for 150-200$ or a 2D LIDAR for 450$ on seeedstudio.

cr0sh 10y ago
> Today a hobbyist can just buy an 1D LIDAR for 150-200$ or a 2D LIDAR for 450$ on seeedstudio. If yer not picky, you can generally pick up a cheap "repair part" or "surplus" Neato 2D Lidar unit from ebay, for about $100.00 or so. They are generally pulled from broken Neato vacuum robots. Alternatively, a used Neato (or sometimes even a new one) can generally be had for under $450.00 (plus you get a ton of other robot experimenting parts!). Another option for hobbyists are used SICK serial-port lidars; I've picked those up for around $300.00 off ebay. They run on 12-24 volts (great for vehicles and electric wheelchair-based platforms), and use RS-232 or RS-422 for communications (where it becomes a PITA is when they are set to the RS-422 protocol - because then you need a special adaptor - and not all of the adaptors work - to reprogram it - using a piece of software that runs on Windows NT4). They are very robust units, though. Big, and heavy (not for small robots - not at all; these units are about the size of a coffee maker). There are three main types - each with a different color case (yellow, blue, and grey). One of them is an "area coverage" only sensor (and doesn't have a way to output scan data), while the other two are more generalized (at least, this is what I recall - I probably have some details mixed up). These are on the used market because companies are phasing them out, I believe, for the newer ethernet based models.
frik 10y ago
the 2D LIDAR is of a vacuum cleaning robot, it has a range of 5m, a toy that cannot be compared with a automotive LIDAR that has 150+m range