Toposens in Munich has launched the first commercial 3D ultrasonic echolocation collision avoidance system.

The system is aimed at mobile robotics to provide 3D sensing of the environment using echolocation with ultrasound.

The Echo One sensor has an ultrasound transmitter and three Infineon MEMS microphones and sends a point cloud of data to a processing unit with sophisticated filters and 3D collision avoidance algorithms.

The sensor compensates the drawbacks of optical sensors through sound-based triangulation in combination with sophisticated noise-filtering software. This in turn delivers robust 3D data output in real-time for each obstacle detected within the fully adjustable warn- and stop zones. These zones can both be set to dynamically follow a mobile robot taking a left- or right turn and adjust to the speed of the vehicle.

“Being able to detect multiple difficult-to-detect obstacles reliably and in real-time, regardless of environmental conditions, enables us to provide next-level robotic safety for our customers. Our technology addresses the shortcomings of optical sensors, such as LiDARs, which can fail to detect floor-based objects like forklift forks on the floor, in unfavourable lighting conditions or transparent or mirrored object surfaces. Receiving data output in 3D, meaning in x, y, and z coordinates, guarantees the most reliable level of 3D collision avoidance,” said Tobias Bahnemann, CEO and Co-Founder of Toposens.

“Ahead of production, we have been co-developing and testing our Echo One in pilot projects and actual real-life set-ups with renowned companies for almost two years. This has put us in a position, from which we can now offer our customers a state-of-the-art, next-level robotic safety system,” he said.

Toposens is now taking orders for the Echo One.

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