Blackmore Announces the World’s First Doppler Lidar for Autonomous Fleets

• Blackmore’s AFDL and LDP product lines deliver interference-free
  operation with range extent beyond 450 meters
• Blackmore’s systems measure instantaneous velocity on every data
  point, which enhances AI perception and informs safer autonomous
  systems

LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Blackmore
Sensors and Analytics, Inc., the pioneers behind Doppler lidar for
automotive applications, today announced two new product lines. The Blackmore
AFDL is a Doppler lidar system specifically designed for
autonomous fleet deployment. And the flexible Blackmore
LDP is a development platform for early deployment into emerging
autonomous markets such as long-haul trucking and air taxi systems.
These two products address the massive demand for smarter,
interference-free lidar solutions across the automotive market and
beyond.

The Doppler Lidar Difference: Instantaneous Velocity Without
Interference

With more than $1 billion invested in the lidar space since 2015, it’s
increasingly difficult for end users to identify a solution that
delivers as promised. This is because the majority of lidar vendors
focus on using amplitude modulation (AM) pulse-based lidar technologies.
As a result, OEMs and suppliers are struggling with the inadequate data
created by these power-hungry AM lidar sensors. And as lidar use becomes
more prevalent, interference-prone AM systems are less effective and
unsafe.

To address this, in 2015 Blackmore introduced the world’s first
frequency-modulation (FM) lidar systems for autonomous vehicles, which
measure both range and velocity simultaneously. For context,
chipset-driven industries – including cell phones, automotive radars and
GPS systems – also migrated from AM to FM modulation in order to deliver
interference-free data at long range, using less power. “The reality is
that physics ultimately wins, no matter how much funding chases inferior
alternatives,” said Dr. Randy Reibel, CEO and co-founder of Blackmore.
“But more importantly, FM-based Doppler lidar sensors are safer for
self-driving applications.”

Blackmore’s team has spent more than 10 years refining FM techniques and
has been shipping high-performance lidar systems that are easy to use
for automotive applications since 2017. Blackmore continues to propel
this advanced technology forward with its two new products.

Blackmore’s Autonomous Fleet Doppler Lidar (AFDL)

Developers building autonomous fleets have long craved Doppler lidar, in
order to access the tremendous benefits provided by its velocity-enabled
point clouds. Blackmore’s AFDL resolves the challenges that stymied AM
lidar. As a result, fleets will see a dramatic increase in reliability
and lower operating costs by reducing time-to-perception and
data-annotation overhead.

Specifically, the multi-beam Doppler lidar sensor delivers instantaneous
velocity and range data beyond 450 meters, with power consumption and
size similar to a small laptop. The system supports a 120 x 30-degree
field of view, software defined operation, precise velocity measurements
with accuracy down to 0.1 meters/second on objects moving up to 150 m/s
(335 mph), and measurement rates in excess of 2.4 million points/second.
Blackmore’s AFDL is available for pre-order and will ship to customers
in Q2 for less than $20,000. Samples are shipping to strategic partners
now.

Blackmore’s Lidar Development Platform (LDP)

From air taxis and long-haul trucking to airport operations and
industrial warehouse robotics, a number of industries want access to
Blackmore’s precise, velocity-informed lidar. To address this demand and
support expansion into new markets, Blackmore is now shipping its Lidar
Development Platform (LDP). The highly flexible platform pairs
Blackmore’s powerful lidar engine with interchangeable optical sensor
heads to make it easy for companies to explore, test and adapt Doppler
lidar for their specific needs. “Development partners want to be part of
the design process, and this new lidar platform helps our customers
efficiently hone their spec requests and better understand the
advantages that Doppler lidar brings to their applications,” said Jim
Curry, co-founder and vice president of analytics at Blackmore.

Because Blackmore uses software-defined lidar data, customers can tailor
the operational parameters – including field of view, range, point
density and scan speed – on the fly with its flexible API. The
long-range forward-look optical head covers a 40 x 40-degree field of
view, provides two beams to increase point throughput to greater than
1.2 million points/second, and can reach out well beyond 500 meters of
range extent. Additional sensor heads will be introduced over time, and
prices will vary depending upon configuration. Blackmore’s LDP is
available for order immediately.

Product images and videos of Blackmore’s Doppler Lidar in action can be
accessed here.

About Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, Inc.

Blackmore is pioneering the development of compact and robust Doppler
lidar sensors, and supporting analytic tools and software, for a variety
of rigorous, mission critical, automotive, industrial and military
environments. Where cost and performance specifications limit more
traditional sensors, Blackmore’s technology brings the advanced tool
sets of modern radar into the optical domain, enabling a new era of
unprecedented lidar system performance. Blackmore is based in Bozeman,
Montana. For more information visit: www.blackmorelidar.com.

Contacts

Alexandra Laurelli
Finn Partners
Alex.Laurelli@FinnPartners.com
650-303-6933