At the 2022 Sensors Converge Conference & Expo, Fierce Electronics and Sensors Converge presented the Best of Sensors Awards, which recognize the most innovative products, companies, and people among 14 categories.
The finalist in the Automotive/Autonomous Technologies category was the PreAct T30P Flash LiDAR, developed by PreAct Technologies.
One of the biggest challenges to autonomous vehicle design today is planning for the future. Most vehicles are expected to last years, but a sensor can become obsolete in as little as a few months. The PreAct T30P Flash LiDAR sensor helps solve this problem by offering both superior hardware and flexible software capabilities.
Designed with autonomous vehicles in mind, the T30P Flash LiDAR is a software-definable sensor. This makes the sensor capable of “over-the-air” updates, allowing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to generate an ongoing source of revenue by providing new features and updates as they’re released. This ensures that the vehicle’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) will stay relevant throughout the life of the vehicle. This is especially important in the emerging autonomous vehicle industry, where manufacturers are constantly using new data from sensors and users to adjust and refine decision-making algorithms.
Another advantage to the T30P’s software flexibility is that it allows OEMs to incorporate one sensor for multiple use cases, from self-parking to gesture recognition.
Beyond autonomous vehicles, the T30P Flash LiDAR can be used in a wide variety of applications. Use cases include automotive (blind spot monitoring and vandalism protection), trucking (dock height detection and autonomous hitching), industrial facilities (overhead clearance detection and collision detection), robotics (obstacle detection), and insurance (usage-based insurance and crash reconstruction).
On the hardware side, the T30P offers a frame rate of 200 fps — the fastest Flash LiDAR available — at QVGA resolution (320 x 240). This makes it well suited for any use case that requires fast, accurate, and high-resolution sensor data that can reliably define and track objects in all environmental conditions.
The T30P Flash LiDAR sensor will be available this summer and is fully compatible with PreAct’s other products, which include:
• TrueSense: Flash LiDAR based on continuous wave time of flight (CWToF)
• TrueDrive: a processor that can receive and analyze inputs from multiple sensors
• TrueSim: a physics-based simulator used to create test environments
Together, the T30P and its product family enable the rapid design and fielding of complete object tracking solutions across multiple use cases and industries.
Founded in 1999, PreAct Technologies originally produced high-speed sensors for the defense industry. In 2018, the company spun off as a stand-alone business, and by 2019, PreAct began working with several OEMs on ADAS and precrash applications. This led to multiple investments and partnerships, including $1 million from Luminate, a $13 million Series A funding round led by State Farm Ventures, and a partnership with Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance. The company is led by Founder and CEO Paul Drysch, an industry veteran who has helped lead four previous automotive startups to successful exits.
Check here for the complete list of winners in the Best of Sensors 2022 Awards.