This MEMS Scanning Mirror Could Solve LiDAR’s Expensive Autonomous Vehicle Challenges

Tech Briefs Author Woodrow Bellamy interviewed Omnitron Sensors Co-founder & CEO Eric Aguilar about the evolution of LiDAR sensors in autonomous navigation systems. Eric reveals how long-standing inadequacies in LiDAR sensors–from fragility and performance issues to high cost–have prevented LiDAR sensors from meeting the rigorous demands of the automotive industry. Until now. Omnitron’s new LiDAR sensor solves the problems that have limited LiDAR. Read the article.

Omnitron Activates at L’ATTITUDE 2023

Eric Aguilar at Omnitron Sensors' activation at L'ATTTITUDE 2023
Eric Aguilar experiences LiDAR in a VR environment

The vibe at L’ATTITUDE 2023—the largest business event in the country exploring the ways in which the U.S. Latinx cohort is driving the growth of The New Mainstream Economy—was nothing short of electric. More than 8,000 executives, business leaders and entrepreneurs gathered in Miami to interact with the four L’ATTITUDE partners, Sol Trujillo, Gary Acosta, Emilio Estefan, and Oscar Munoz, each of whom has blazed a path in his chosen profession. Attendees also tuned into a world-class line-up of C-suite speakers from firms such as Accenture, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, NBCUniversal News Group, JP Morgan Chase, United Airlines, and too many others to list here.

L’ATTITUDE 2023 was especially memorable for Omnitron Sensors, which was one of two L’ATTITUDE Ventures’ portfolio companies selected for a booth activation during the event. Omnitron Sensors CEO Eric Aguilar and the Omnitron team showcased the company’s LiDAR sensor technology through a VR demo designed to show event attendees how LiDAR augments environments to enhance the accuracy and safety of autonomous robotic systems.

Eric’s story as a Latino entrepreneur who co-founded a chip company also caught the attention of CNBC’s Squawk Box. Catch his interview here.

One day in the not-too-distant future, Omnitron’s LiDAR sensors will present a 3D environment that’s safer and more affordable for autonomous navigation/operation in cars and delivery drones, in VR gear, in industrial robots, and in other complex electronic devices that need superior machine vision.

Curious how Omnitron Sensors is reinventing LiDAR sensors? Contact us today.

Fix the Optical Subsystem, Fix LiDAR

ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo

Fix the Optical Subsystem, Fix LiDAR

While extremely promising, today’s optical subsystems for LiDAR remain fragile, large, expensive to build and maintain, overly susceptible to environmental conditions, and inconsistent in their performance. Fortunately, we can reach the full potential of LiDAR by fixing the optical subsystems on which LiDAR systems rely.

With experience that spans core sensor development and systems integration at companies such as Tesla, Argo AI, and Google X Project Wing, Omnitron Sensors Co-founder & CEO Eric Aguilar learned first-hand what automotive integrators need for affordable, reliable, long-range LiDAR systems. Join Eric for his presentation, Fix the Optical Subsystem, Fix LiDAR, on September 21, 2023 at 1:45 p.m. at the 2023 ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo & Conference (September 20-21 in Santa Clara, California).

During his presentation, Eric will review the pros and cons of today’s optical subsystems and will introduce a new, cost-effective MEMS scanning mirror for LiDAR that ticks all the boxes for automotive integrators and manufacturers.

You’ll learn more about:

• The role that the optical subsystem in LiDAR plays in ADAS and autonomous systems
• Automotive industry requirements for optical subsystems for LiDAR
• The top 3 issues with existing optical subsystems for LiDAR—Voice Coil, spinning polygon, Galvo
• The great potential—and challenges—of MEMS mirrors
• The problem-solver: first mass-produced low-cost, rugged, reliable MEMS scanning mirror

Hear from Eric and 70+ other expert speakers exploring key topics around the development and testing of safe autonomous driving and ADAS technologies, including software, AI and deep learning, sensor fusion, virtual environments, verification and validation of autonomous systems, testing and development tools and technologies, real-world word testing and deployment, and standards and regulations.

Get your free expo pass or register for the conference today. Or, if you’d like to learn more about Omnitron Sensors but aren’t able to attend, please contact us.

Why Isn’t LiDAR in Every Autonomous Navigation System?

The mechanical engineer Karl Friedrich Benz invented the first motor car powered by a gasoline combustion engine in 1884/1885. Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach and other pioneering inventors of early motor cars would have been hard-pressed to imagine modern cars, many of which offer advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that improve automotive safety, independent of the operator.

Karl Friedrich Benz’s Benz Patent-Motorwagen, circa 1885/86

The possibility of fully self-driving cars, self-flying cargo planes, and package-delivery drones would have seemed even more far-fetched to these 19th-century engineers. But as 21st-century engineers, we recognize that ADAS, robotic cars, drones, and industrial robotics—all applications featuring some level of autonomous functionality—are not pie-in-the-sky imaginings. And the key to realizing them commercially is the perfection of LiDAR.

LiDAR—which stands for light detection and ranging—is essential to autonomous navigation. In fact, it does so much more than the more mature vision technologies, cameras and radar, which are also used in autonomous systems. Only LiDAR provides depth and functions seamlessly at all levels of light. It also delivers phenomenal resolution, so it can perceive both moving and stationary objects—another critical advantage over cameras and radar.

Given LiDAR’s technical strengths, why isn’t it ubiquitous?

As a sensor IP company with an executive team that also has years of experience with LiDAR, we’ve given this a lot of thought. And we’d like to share this with you.

Read Omnitron CEO Eric Aguilar’s article in EE Times, Want Better Autonomous Navigation? Start with LiDAR.

Or email us today for more information.

And if you’re interested in the history of the automobile, check out this Library of Congress page.