KETI strives to commercialize domestic scanning lidar using pure technology.
Multi-channel 360-degree scanning lidar demos coming soon

In autonomous driving, sensors play a crucial role in recognizing the surroundings. Among these, LIDAR, often called the "eyes" of autonomous vehicles, can cover blind spots that radar cannot. However, to commercialize Level 3, which allows for partial driving, the challenge lies in lowering its price.

“The number of channels and scan speed are important for LiDAR used in autonomous vehicles because it must respond to accidents that can suddenly occur in vehicles traveling at high speeds,” explained Lee Han-young, a senior researcher at the Smart Sensor Research Center of the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI).

Lidar is a sensor used for industrial precision positioning, defense equipment, and spacecraft, but it has the advantage of being able to obtain precise targeting and accurate distance values using lasers, so it is used not only in autonomous vehicles but also in 3D machine vision for robots and obstacle avoidance driving for drones.

Just as our eyes simultaneously perceive distance information about objects through light from various viewing angles, LIDAR uses laser scanning to achieve this function. To speed up scanning, multiple lasers are used, rather than a single one, and some can rotate 360 degrees depending on the scan range. They are classified into fixed, rotary, single-channel, and multi-channel (4 to 64 channels).


Last year, KETI developed a "scanning lidar optical engine platform" using purely domestic technology, installed it in an actual vehicle, and conducted road tests. The company already has experience transferring laser fence technology, and is currently conducting research on rangefinders with Hanwha Techwin.

The rangefinder is a single-channel lidar without the scanning module found in CCTV. Previously, CCTV cameras had low image resolution, allowing them to observe only close ranges, with autofocus limited to 10 meters. As image sensor resolution increased, accurate focus allowed for data acquisition of distant objects. However, the technology for focusing on distant objects was lacking. KETI is developing a miniaturized device capable of measuring from a distance of 100 meters and designed to fit inside a CCTV dome.

"Our ultimate goal with our final development is to extract object type, information, and distance from scanned data," the researcher said. "This requires expanding the scan range and angle, or developing a LiDAR with multiple channels." "A multi-channel, 360-degree scanning LiDAR is expected to be available for demonstration soon, and is attracting interest from several companies."

Even in Korea, high-end vehicles are being equipped with lidar. Hyundai's Genesis EQ900 features a product manufactured by Quanergy. This component contains eight lasers. The researcher said, “I understand that it is currently being applied to automobiles at around $300, and I believe that as time goes by, the price will come down and lidar will be installed in mid-size cars as well.”

Regarding the difficulties of technology development, this researcher expressed his feelings, saying, “Optical devices are widely used, and since lenses must be molded and injected, even extracting a single sample costs a lot of money.” He also said, “It is difficult to continuously level up the target to differentiate from competing technologies without any actual user requirements. In particular, it is difficult because the financial resources and research facilities are inferior to those of competitors.”

Accordingly, the online seminar (eeWebina) to be held on the 18th will cover the system configuration and standards of LiDAR, design conditions and core design technologies, as well as the single-channel LiDAR and 360-degree scanning LiDAR platform used in CCTVs currently being researched at KETI.