Cepton introduced the miniature Nova lidar in January 2021.
Cepton Inc. and Exwayz, two perception development companies, have announced they are working together to develop more products centered on perception applications for mobile robots.
San Jose, Calif.-based Cepton makes lidar products designed to be used foradvanced driver assist systems, smart cities, smart spaces, and industrial applications. The company said it aims to take lidar mainstream and achieve a balanced approach to performance, cost, and reliability, while enabling scalable and intelligent 3D perception solutions across industries.
Shenzhen, China-based Exways said it provides plug-and-play perception software to enable lidar-based 3D mapping, localization, and re-localization as well as object detection and classification. Its complete SDK for real-time 3D lidar processing is used primarily in mobile robotics for logistics, construction, security, and more.
The partnership will spur greater lidar development, companies said
Cepton said its collaboration with Exwayz will further unlock the potential of its lidar technology across a wide range of mobile robotics applications. By leveraging the versatility and reliability of Cepton’s high-performance, easy-to-integrate lidars, Cepton and Exwayz said they aim to provide an immediate solution to expediting solution integration processes for global customers.
“We have been working with Cepton since the first day we released our product in October 2021,” said Mathias Corsia, CTO and co-founder of Exwayz, in a statement last week. “In addition to the impressive range and level of details measured by their sensors, we were very impressed by the compactness and variety of Cepton’s product line, which fits perfectly the industry needs in terms of integration and robustness for making autonomous systems a reality.”
“Cepton’s automotive-grade lidar sensors have demonstrated the quality and reliability necessary for mobile robotics solutions, said Henri Häfner, director of product management and marketing and business development at Cepton. “Our core lidar technology enables an optimal combination of high performance, ruggedness and unrivaled embeddability.”
Lidar solution providers, regardless of their own software capabilities, can integrate Exwayz’s software with their own lidar hardware for an easy demonstration of how lidar enhances intelligence for robotic applications, it said.
Due to its excellent 3D sensing capabilities and ability to operate under challenging lighting conditions, lidar is quickly becoming recognized as an essential sensor technology within robotics, they said.
Cepton added that it will be working with Exwayz to deploy its Nova Lidar sensor for near-range applications.
Cepton works with ALP. Lab and TE Connectivity for lidar road safety project
Earlier this month, Cepton showed off a proof-of-concept demonstration with ALP. Lab GmbH, and TE Connectivity of an integrated system warning drivers of unseen hazards ahead. The “Periscope” project combined Cepton’s intelligent 3D lidar perception, ALP.Lab’s expertise in system integration, testing and data analytics and TE Connectivity’s vehicle-to-everything (V2X) solution.
The three companies said they created a solution that communicates additional information about road conditions in real time to the vehicle providing more time to react to potentially dangerous situations and enhancing overall safety.
“The results from ‘Periscope’ are impressive,” said Christoph Knauder of ALP.Lab in a statement. “We tested a scenario where a pedestrian around a corner started to cross the road and thus stepped into the lane of the approaching test vehicle. The driver was able to be warned of the approaching pedestrian five seconds before the pedestrian became unblocked and appeared in his field of view.
“The high-resolution 3D sensing capabilities of Cepton lidars allowed us to generate smart analytics of the situation, while the V2X system by TE Connectivity enabled real-time communications to the vehicle, making it possible to drive an intelligent decision before it’s too late,” Knauder added. “We believe ‘Periscope’ has proven the safety potential of smart infrastructure in the future of autonomous mobility. We look forward to extending our collaboration to test the solution in more use cases.”
Cepton to be recognized at CES 2023
Cepton was also recently named a CES 2023 Innovation Award Honoree for its lidar products. In a statement, Cepton CEO Jun Pei said he was “thrilled” for his company to be honored and used the opportunity to showcase its latest lidar product the Vista-X120 Plus. The company will be showing it off at this year’s CES in Las Vegas.
“Vista-X120 Plus is designed for both today’s consumer vehicles as well as the next generation – intelligent, electrified and software-defined,” Pei said. “As the automotive industry evolves, our lidar innovations never cease to advance. This new product is an extension of Cepton’s vision since 2016, which is building capable, reliable and affordable lidar solutions to enable safe and autonomous transportation for everyone.”
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