In April 2023, Hikrobot released the forklift robot F5-1600A, which is compatible with 3D laser and 2D laser SLAM navigation. In May, VisionNav Robotics launched a new generation of product, the VNST20 unmanned pallet handling truck, which integrates positioning, perception and protection functions by using a 3D laser. In August, VisionNav Robotics officially released three E-series counterbalanced unmanned forklifts, which use multiple 3D radar composite positioning methods to support faster mapping of complex scenes.
In addition to Hikrobot and VisionNav Robotics, a number of companies, including Colossal Intelligence, Blue Chip Technology, SIASUN, Jiuyao Intelligence, Jingsong and other companies have successively launched 3D navigation mobile robot productsFrom 2D to 3D, mobile robot manufacturers are constantly exploring new technologies to achieve a leap in robot performance.
More complex environments require more powerful perception
The transformation of navigation technology has accelerated the application of mobile robots
The development of a** originated in the 50s of the 20th century, the early traditional a** is mostly with electromagnetic navigation, magnetic navigation, mobile robots along the ground pre-set "track" for point-to-point transportation, this technical principle is simple, low cost, but change or expand the path and later maintenance costs are higher. During this period, a** was mainly used in material handling and transportation in industries such as the automotive and electronics industries.
In the late 70s, with the development of microelectronic technology, relevant manufacturers began to use sensing technologies such as lidar and infrared to improve the flexibility of a**. With the continuous improvement of the flexibility of a**, the application range has gradually expanded.
Stepping into the 21st century, A** began to get involved in more fields, and the requirements for robot perception systems are getting higher and higher, and natural navigation products based on SLAM technology have begun to appear, through the use of lidar, cameras and other sensors, A** no longer needs to use any external signs, you can perceive the surrounding environment in real time, and achieve navigation through autonomous decision-making and path planning. In this context, the concept of AMR (AutomatedMobile Robot) is becoming known.
In recent years, AMR technology has matured and its implementation has begun to accelerate. According to the data of the CMR Industry Alliance and the statistics of the New Strategic Mobile Robot Industry Research InstituteIn 2023, the number of AMR sales in China will be about 49,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 6013%。In recent years, the proportion of AMR products has been increasing, and in 2023It has surpassed the best navigation products to become the largest subdivision of mobile robots. From the 50s of the last century to the present, with the continuous progress of technology and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, the application of mobile robots has become more and more extensive and complex. At the same time, mobile robots have evolved from simple, single-function automation equipment to highly intelligent autonomous systems that can cope with complex environments.
Core sensors are key to determining the performance of mobile robots
From automatic guidance to autonomous navigation, mobile robots have achieved a revolutionary leap, but in many scenarios, due to the technical limitations of the current stage, mobile robots have not been well applied.
At present, autonomous navigation mobile robots mainly rely on SLAM technology, which is mainly divided into laser SLAM and visual SLAM according to the different sensors they use.
According to the data of the CMR Industry Alliance and the statistics of the New Strategic Mobile Robot Industry Research InstituteIn 2023, laser SLAM products will account for about 90% of the AMRs landed, and vision SLAM products will account for 10%. Laser SLAM is still the mainstream application.
Proportion of laser SLAM & visual SLAM product applications in 2023
As the core sensor of mobile robots, the breakthrough of lidar performance determines the overall intelligence of the robot to a certain extent.
In the application of laser SLAM, single-line 2D lidar was used as the core sensor, and single-line lidar (2D lidar) responds faster in angular frequency and sensitivity, and is very accurate in testing the distance and accuracy of surrounding obstacles, but single-line radar can only scan in a plane and cannot measure the height of objects, and does not have the function of 3D modeling. Compared with 2D lidar, 3D lidar can scan three-dimensional space and output dense three-dimensional point clouds, which can provide richer information support for real-time positioning, navigation and obstacle avoidance of mobile robots, and detect obstacle avoidance objects around the vehicle body and ground terrain changes to the greatest extent. In addition, it has the advantages of strong detection ability of low-reflectivity objects, strong ability to resist ambient light interference, strong penetration ability of rain, fog, snow and dust, etc., and can be used in indoor and outdoor complex scenes. However, compared with 2D lidar, 3D lidar is a new application in the field of mobile robots, and it has been high before, so many companies have been on the sidelines.
Whether it is a mobile robot manufacturer or a lidar manufacturer, everyone is constantly exploring intelligent perception solutions with higher performance and lower cost.
The cost performance is improved, and the application of 3D lidar is accelerated
In 2023, the number of 3D laser navigation products in the industry will gradually increase, especially from the landing level, most of the company's products have passed the early verification stage and began to achieve small batches at customer sites.
* It is an important prerequisite for the acceleration of the application of 3D lidar technology in the field of mobile robots. With the intensification of competition in the industry, cost reduction has become the top priority of major mobile robot manufacturers. Previously, 3D lidar was mainly used in the autonomous driving industry, in recent years, with the rise of the domestic autonomous driving industry, it has also led to the rise of a wave of domestic lidar manufacturers, with the efforts of a number of enterprises, the cost of 3D lidar is constantly decreasing, therefore, mobile robot manufacturers also have more choices.
Industrial scenario: unmanned forklift manufacturers are the first to test the water
Among the many subdivisions of mobile robots, the unmanned forklift industry has the most urgent demand for 3D lidar.
At present, the navigation mode of unmanned forklifts has been upgraded from the initial magnetic navigation, ** navigation, laser reflector navigation to 2D laser SLAM navigation, which can basically cope with most indoor scenes. However, with the deepening of applications, end customers have also put forward higher requirements for unmanned forklifts, and customers hope that unmanned forklifts can achieve efficient full-process operations, compatible with indoor and outdoor scenarios, and at the same time, they hope that robots can further simplify the deployment of facilities and achieve a high degree of flexibility.
Most of the application scenarios of 2D laser SLAM unmanned forklifts are limited to indoors, and there are clear requirements for the inclination and flatness of the ground plane, coupled with the small field of view of the sensor, which is easily affected by dynamic objects in the working conditions. For common high-change logistics scenarios such as dense high stacking and dense high material cages, it is necessary to use accurately measured high reverse bars as an augmentation means, which increases the cost of pre-construction and post-maintenance.
For the unmanned forklift industry, which has a market penetration rate of less than 1%, in order to further replace traditional manual forklifts and achieve new breakthroughs, unmanned forklifts must break through the shackles of indoor scenes and go outdoors, while being able to cope with more complex operation processes. Therefore, unmanned forklifts need to be supported by higher-performance navigation technology. In this context, the application of 3D laser SLAM technology is becoming the choice of more and more unmanned forklift manufacturers.
In 2021, on behalf of the company, VisionNav Robotics, unmanned forklifts reached a strategic cooperation with Livox on LiDAR-enabled unmanned forkliftsAt the CEMAT exhibition in the same year, VisionNav Robotics' unmanned forklift was equipped with Livox's hybrid solid-state 3D lidar, which perfectly demonstrated the whole process of unmanned loading and unloading of trucks.
In May 2023, VisionNav Robotics launched a new generation of product, the VNST20 unmanned pallet handling forkliftVNSt20 integrates positioning, perception and protection functions through a 3D lidar, which not only improves the perception and positioning accuracy of forklifts, but also enhances the body safety protection function. The repeated positioning accuracy of VNST20 pallet handling unmanned forklift can reach 10mm, 05°；The adaptive accuracy of repeated release reaches 10mm, 05°。
The 3D LiDAR equipped with VisionNav Robotics VNSt20 is also from Livox Technology. With its deep technical accumulation in the field of lidar, Livox Technology has not only broken through the three bottlenecks of "cost, reliability and mass production" that restrict large-scale applications, but also become the world's first large-scale manufacturer to bring lidar into the era of 1,000 yuan. With its superior performance, high quality and mass production ability, Livox Technology has quickly won the recognition of many autonomous driving and robotics companies.
The MID-360 carried by VNST20 is the industry's first 360° hybrid solid-state lidar launched by Livox at the beginning of this year, and the price is only 3999 yuan. Livox pioneered the Prism solution, which uses optics instead of traditional mechanical scanning devices, which allows for higher scanning speeds and longer lifetimes while achieving higher performance and smaller size than traditional mechanical lidar.
The miniaturization of lidar makes it easier for robots to integrate and apply. According to the relevant person in charge of Liwo,The volume of the MID-360 is only the size of a tennis ball, which is nearly 60% smaller than the previous product in the Midao series, the MID-70Most of the volume can be recessed and hidden, and the hemispherical window to be exposed is only 45 cm, height 25 cm. The compact fuselage not only reserves more space for the design of unmanned forklifts, but also can further beautify the appearance of the vehicle body.
While shrinking the fuselage, Livox has further expanded the FOV of LiDARFor the first time, the FOV of hybrid solid-state lidar has been expanded to 360°It can help unmanned forklifts perceive more complex 3D environments and improve the safety of operation and operation sites.
As mobile robots are being used on a larger scale, Livox also takes into account the cross-fire between radars and the signal interference caused by the complex light environment outdoors. MID-360 introduces an anti-jamming design, which can ensure stable operation without interfering with each other even in an environment where multiple lidar signals are mixed indoors. At the same time, the MID-360 can resist 100klux direct sunlight, and its performance in outdoor strong light environments is the same as that of indoors, ensuring seamless cross-scene operation from outdoor to outdoor.
In order to meet the harsh scene needs of unmanned forklifts, such a 3D lidar is less than 1 3 of the traditional 16-line mechanical type, and is two-fifths or even one-tenth of the optical phased array lidar. In the face of extremely cost-effective performance, Livox's MID-360 has been recognized by VisionNav Robotics. It is reported that up to now, about 80% of VisionNav Robotics' models have adopted the multi-modal fusion navigation method based on MID-360 for unmanned forklift navigation, pallet recognition and obstacle avoidance. In addition to VisionNav Robotics, Livox has also reached cooperation with other mobile robot manufacturers, and the breakthrough of MID-360 in various performance aspects will undoubtedly bring more possibilities to mobile robot applications.
Home commercial field: effective verification of RTK de-RTK
In addition to the industrial field for unmanned forklifts, MID-360 has also been widely used in lawn mowing robots, unmanned logistics vehicles and other fields.
In September 2023, Dreame Technology's first borderless intelligent lawn mower A1 was unveiled at the IFA exhibition, which uses MID-360 lidar to integrate multiple functions such as mapping, positioning, and obstacle avoidance.
At present, there are two main technical solutions for intelligent lawn mower robots in the industry in terms of positioning, one is the embedded scheme based on inertial navigation, and the other is the non-buried scheme. The advantage of this scheme is that the cost is low, but the disadvantage is that it cannot achieve accurate positioning, and the cost will increase with the increase of the lawn area, and it takes a long time and has poor layout flexibility. The non-buried solution generally relies on RTK satellite positioning technology and integrates other sensors such as IMU and vision to improve the flexibility of the lawn mower, but it will also face the fact that the base station signal is easy to be occluded, which may lead to positioning deviations, resulting in problems such as missed cutting and offset of the preset path. With the help of MID-360 high-precision lidar, the Dreame Roboticmower A1 lawn mower can reach a detection distance of 70 meters, with a 360°*59° omnidirectional ultra-large viewing angle, which can perceive the space in all directions and build a 3D map of the courtyard in real time and accurately.
In the face of complex outdoor environments, especially when the signal needs to pass over houses, trees and other obstructions, the mid-360 high-precision lidar can ensure that the signal is more stable and ensure the efficient operation of the lawn mower robot. Combined with the intelligent obstacle avoidance algorithm, based on the MID-360 lidar, the lawn mower robot can achieve 3D omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, identify more than 10 common obstacles in the courtyard, and make the mowing process safer and smoother.
In addition to lawn mower robots, MID-360 has also been maturely applied in unmanned delivery trolleys, cleaning robots and other products.
We released the mid-360 in March 2023, but demand has been outstripping supply since then. The relevant person in charge of Livox revealed that at present, the MID-360 has been recognized by the majority of robot users.
Break through boundaries and move towards a new era of intelligent sensing
From the development process of mobile robots and the application of 3D lidar, we can get a glimpse that the development of navigation technology is an important breakthrough to improve the intelligence of mobile robots.
The development of technology has promoted the continuous expansion of the application range of robots, and at the same time, new market needs are also forcing technology innovation from generation to generation.
According to the CMR Industry Alliance**, in the next three years, AMR robots are expected to account for more than 50% of the entire industrial mobile robot market, truly realizing intelligent mobile robot applications. However, the current natural navigation technology is not enough to deal with all situations, and with the further deepening of AMR applications in the future, navigation technology is still the focus of mobile robots.
In the future, full life cycle SLAM, dynamic target filtering, multi-sensor fusion, semantic segmentation and recognition will be the main paths for mobile robots to further improve their navigation capabilities. In this process, it is believed that the application of 3D navigation technology will continue to increase.
Livox companies are developing related products for the field of mobile robots, which is a good confirmation of this. "When our first product, the MID-40, was launched, we received a request from mobile robot manufacturers. Livox said that they have always been optimistic about the field of mobile robots.
As the core component of mobile robots, the competition of lidar manufacturers will continue to revolve around technology iteration, improve performance, and reduce costs. It is foreseeable that with the continuous breakthrough and iteration of the core technology of laser navigation, the application boundary of mobile robots will continue to expand.