Velodyne (LIDAR) started out of the Darpa Grand Challenge - Team DAD (ie, Team Digital Auto Drive): http://archive.darpa.mil/grandchallenge05/Team_Applicants/T

Velodyne (LIDAR) started out of the Darpa Grand Challenge - Team DAD (ie, Team Digital Auto Drive): http://archive.darpa.mil/grandchallenge05/Team_Applicants/Team_DAD.html http://archive.darpa.mil/grandchallenge05/Team_Applicants/Te... Basically, the founder of Velodyne (subwoofers), David Hall, got interested in robotics (from what sounds like the hobby angle, via combat robotics).