Toposens introduces new 3D ultrasonic sensor TS3 to improve detection accuracy of autonomous vehicles

     German company Toposens has introduced its new flagship TS3, a 3D ultrasonic sensor for a variety of applications in the autonomous driving systems market that enables reliable target detection and situational awareness. In contrast to conventional ultrasonic sensors, which are usually only able to measure the distance to the nearest object's reflective surface, Toposens' new 3D sensor has a field of view up to 160 degrees and can simultaneously 3D measure multiple targets in the scanned area. The operation mimics the echolocation technology that bats and dolphins use to navigate and locate in the wild.

     The new TS3 sensor combines selected hardware components with proprietary signal processing algorithms, making it ideal for applications such as indoor robot navigation and object collision avoidance. The system has real-time processing capabilities, high data transmission bandwidth and low power consumption, making it ideal for battery-powered robots.

     The sensor is capable of reliably mapping its surroundings with minimal processing power, positioning itself in pre-set maps to perform complex path-planning algorithms, with example use cases including household cleaning robots and delivery/service robots. In addition, the sensor is immune to ambient light and can even detect mirror and transparent surfaces, helping to add an extra layer of safety in applications where optical sensors fail. To improve reliability, the 3D point cloud generated by this sensor is easily fused with data from other sensors within the system.

     The new TS3 sensor is an embedded sensor system that emits ultrasonic waves at frequencies that humans cannot hear. A set of microphones then records the echoes of all the objects around the sensor and calculates the position of such objects in three-dimensional space, thus creating an entirely new way of ultrasonic sensing for autonomous driving systems.

     In addition, Tobias Bahnemann, Managing Director of Toposens, said: "Our new Bat Vision TS3 sensor is compact, inexpensive and easy to integrate. "Engineers can easily add it to the sensor stack to replace or complement existing optical sensing systems, providing both redundancy and improved accuracy compared to standard ultrasonic sensors used in various autonomous navigation applications."

     The core technology of the new TS3 sensor is based on the company's SoundVision1TM chip, making the sensor system easily adaptable to a variety of product designs, making it a perfect technology platform for the development of next-generation cars and robots, and even automotive use cases such as autonomous parking and next-generation ADAS functions.

     The sensor has a detection range of up to 5 meters, a scanning frequency of about 28 Hz, returns up to 200 points per second, with each 3D point corresponding to Cartesian coordinates, and is capable of additional volume measurements of ultrasonic waves returned from the surface of an object.

     In addition to the TS3 sensor, Toposens also provides a featual-rich toolkit for the Robot Operating System (ROS) middleware to easily integrate the sensor into existing systems, enabling rapid prototyping of advanced navigation capabilities. Currently, the company is working on adding advanced decision algorithms to the software and the ancillary stack that comes with it.