Ultrasonic echolocation sensor for 3D collision avoidance

Toposens GmbH releases its new Ultrasonic Echolocation Sensor for 3D Collision Avoidance. The industrial-grade sensor development kit, ECHO ONE DK, offers the next level of development based on the company’s proven 3D ultrasonic technology, which mimics a bat’s echolocation techniques.

Unlike current sensor technologies that can be negatively impacted by lighting conditions or moisture, the new sensor uses echolocation to create robust, real-time 3D echolocation data to guide autonomous systems over a mixture of applications. The performance of this 3D ultrasonic sensor is especially robust in harsh environments (featuring the IP67 protection rating), as it is dirt tolerant and not affected by dust, smoke, or mist.

The solution features 3D multi-object detection of complex and transparent objects in an ultra-short operating range from 20cm up to 3m. It provides an ultra-wide Field-of-View of up to 180-degrees in ultra-short range and up to 110-degrees at 3m. Its low power consumption of 2.2W supports a longer robot uptime, and it is fully certified according to CE, FCC and IP67 regulations. For simple integration, this device comes with a CAN and USB interface and software packages that include Toposens Sensor Library (C++-Library), ROS Implementation Package, Cross-Platform Toposens 3D Visualizer.

The company is partnering with high-tech companies, including Infineon, Murata and Nvidia, which supply high-class parts, including the XENSIVTM MEMS microphones, passive components, and post-processing computation platforms.

“Our biggest asset is our innovative combination of unique hardware configuration and software packages, based on patented 3D and Time-of-Flight algorithms and noise filtering, processing ultrasonic echo data into reliable 3D data”, says Tobias Bahnemann, CEO and co-founder of Toposens, and concludes: “With our sensor solution, the high costs of operating accidents can be reduced, improving safety in manufacturing environments, and increasing the ROI of AGV applications.”

“Our 3D ultrasonic sensor is the answer to this problem by precisely perceiving its environment and reliably detecting accident-causing objects such as forklift forks and even the smallest items lying in the path of an AGV while yielding robust, light-tolerant data. To reduce accidents to zero, the demand for safety sensors of all kinds is growing. Especially for 3D perception, an area not covered by the typically used 2D safety LiDARs. The in-built, Toposens-own, best-in-class 3D collision avoidance features for added machine safety make it a cost-effective, reliable and efficient solution, which will help your AGV, robot, or other application avoid collisions with all kinds of obstacles, even in the roughest environments, as the IP67 rating proves”, explains Alexander Rudoy, co-founder and CTO of Toposens GmbH.