n TECHNOLOGY A NORWEGIAN START-UP has announced the world’s first safe 3D ultrasonic depth sensor, designed to boost safety in spaces shared by humans and robots. Oslo-based Sonair claims that its Adar sensor offers a simpler, cheaper alternative to LiDAR sensors, with a wider field of view, and will transform robot safety zones from 2D to 3D. “Safety just got a lot simpler – and better adapted to detect people,” says the company’s CEO, Knut Sandven. “Adar enables 3D 360-degree obstacle detection around AMRs at a significantly lower cost than the sensor packages used today, enabling AMR manufacturers to build safe and affordable autonomous robots. “Adar is an advanced plug-and-play sensing technology ensuring compliance with safety standards,” he adds. “With its small form factor, and low power and compute consumption, it is easy to integrate as part of a combined sensor package. It takes the ‘uh oh’ out of human robot coexistence, and replaces it with an ‘all clear’.” 2D LiDAR safety scanners used on AMRs usually only see a person’s legs in a horizontal plane. By contrast, Sonair’s patented Adar (acoustic detection and ranging) technology detects people and objects in 3D. An Adar sensor provides a full 180 x 180 degree fieldof-view, and a 5m range. The technology at the heart of Adar – called “beamforming” – has been developed at Norway’s MiNaLab research centre for more than 20 years. Adar gives autonomous robots omnidirectional depth perception, allowing them to “hear” their surroundings in real-time 3D, using airborne soundwaves to interpret spatial information. It complies with ISO13849:2023, performance level d / SIL2. The sensor creates a virtual safety shield, allowing people and robots to share the space safely. It combines wavelength-matched transducers with beamforming signal processing, and algorithms for object recognition. Adar is on track to achieve safety certification by the end of 2025. This will be an first for 3D ultrasonic sensing in air. More than 20 companies, including AMR manufacturers, automotive suppliers, and health and cleaning vendors, have validated the sensor’s effectiveness in an early access programme that started last year. The Adar sensors are due to start shipping in July 2025. The first commercial orders have already been placed, including one from Japan's Fuji Corporation, which plans to use the sensor in an upcoming line of AMRs, and another from a Swiss manufacturer of autonomous robots for the cleaning industry. www.sonair.com First 3D ultrasonic robot safety sensor is cheaper than LiDAR ZZZ HXFKQHU FR XN VDOHV#HXFKQHU FR XN 6PDUW 6DIHW\ IRU ,QWUDORJLVWLFV 3URWHFW SHRSOH UHGXFH GRZQWLPH DQG VLPSOLI\ DFFHVV ZLWK 5),' DFFHVV VPDUW LQWHUORFNV VDIHW\ QHWZRUNV OLJKW FXUWDLQV DQG PRUH 6FDODEOH VDIHW\ EXLOW IRU IDVW PRYLQJ HQYLURQPHQWV Sonair’s 360-degree object detection sensor will transform robot safety zones from 2D to 3D, improving safety performance over existing systems, while cutting costs
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