One of the most important technological challenges for autonomous ground vehicles (UGVs) is to provide safe means of pedestrian detection and collision avoidance. The project will develop an eye-safe and accurate detection, at a farther distance than current state-of-the-art systems, as well as object identification and characterization even under adverse environmental conditions. All existing LiDAR systems are not equal, but they have some drawbacks in common: they all use Si or InGaAs absorption materials that have detection limits (low wavelength detection cut-off and/or low DOE), resulting in insufficient resolution (or limited detection distance). In addition, limitation in optical power due to laser safety is a serious limiting factor. To overcome these problems a new type of photo detector is used. METAS will perform the laser safety calculation allowing operating the system at highest acceptable limits.
