Global automotive supplier DENSO Corporation has developed smaller and more cost-effective laser radar, which is an active safety technology that will help avoid low-speed collisions. DENSO’s new laser radar is used as a sensor for the Smart Assist System* of the Daihatsu Move, a compact vehicle released in the Japanese market last December.
“As automakers have been accelerating efforts to develop systems to avoid collisions and reduce impact when a collision cannot be avoided, sensor for these technologies must be balanced in terms of performance, size and cost for respective vehicle models and systems,” said Hiroyuki Wakabayashi, executive director responsible for DENSO’s Information & Safety Systems Business Group. “We were able to reduce the overall size of our new radar to allow it to be easily adaptable across vehicle models and systems.”
Smaller Laser Radar
To consolidate space, the newly developed laser radar features a simpler laser beam generation mechanism than previous versions. Also, the electronic control unit was integrated into the signal processing boards, which were typically separate. Additionally, DENSO was able to reduce the overall size of the radar by using a smaller lens.
* Smart Assist System consists of four technologies: (1) Brakes that assist low-speed crash avoidance, (2) Gas pedal misoperation control, (3) Informs of motion of vehicle in front, (4) VSC (Vehicle Stability Control) and TRC (TRaction Control). DENSO’s laser radar will be used for technologies (1), (2) and (3), to detect obstacles in front of the vehicle.
Source: Denso
Romain’s opinion:
Active safety is an emerging trend in automotive industry and there are two different technologies that are competing: the radar and the camera (See our news about Nissan Safety shield). Do you think there will be a unique technical solution leading the market of automobile’s active safety systems? If yes, which one?
