Kudan 3D-Lidar SLAM with Cepton’s latest Lidar in action

Cepton Technologies Inc. (hereafter Cepton), a leading provider of MMT®-based Lidar solutions, and Kudan embarked on a collaboration at CES in Las Vegas in January 2020. We’ve been closely working on common applications such as advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and robotics. Thanks to the superior combination of performance, reliability and cost-efficiency of their Lidar solutions, Cepton has secured the largest ADAS Lidar design win to date with a major global OEM, whose multiple mainstream vehicle models with Cepton Lidars included will be available for purchase by 2023. Kudan 3D-Lidar SLAM※1 (KdLidar) has advantages in its sensor flexibility on top of fundamental accuracy and robustness to exploit Cepton Lidar’s performance in SLAM application

 

The demo video below is one typical environment and situation for some of ADAS applications where a vehicle moves at relatively slow speed and makes several turns (e.g., autonomous parking, summon parking).

Demo movie：

Cepton’s Vista®-P60 Lidar offers long range and high resolution, powered by its frictionless, mirrorless and rotation-free MMT® (Micro Motion Technology) architecture. As a directional Lidar, it’s different when it comes to SLAM compared to traditional Lidars with 360-degree field of view. For instance, with directional Lidars, when a vehicle makes a turn, it could be more difficult for SLAM to keep tracking some objects from frame to frame due to the comparably lower field of view. However, KdLidar handles this very well due to its accurate position estimation and ego-motion compensation. This demo is done using only Lidar as sensor input for KdLidar, however, it can also fuse data from an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) with those from the 3D-Lidar to further enhance the performance

Henri Haefner, Director of Product Management and Marketing at Cepton commented: “Cepton and Kudan’s partnership combines KdLidar’s accurate and robust SLAM with the Vista-P60 Lidar’s long range, high resolution 3D imaging, providing an ideal solution for automotive and robotics application developers. We look forward to continuing our work with Kudan and showcasing the key capabilities of our Lidar solutions through their SLAM solutions for customers worldwide.”

We will showcase our solution at Cepton’s booth at the coming Tech.AD Europe, an exhibition focusing on autonomous driving held in Berlin, Germany on July 1 – 2.

※1 SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) is a technology which allows devices to simultaneously self-locate and create maps of their surrounding environment. Kudan owns 3D-Lidar SLAM technology utilizing both cameras and 3D-Lidar sensors, and along with the widespread use of Lidar, 3D-Lidar SLAM is being well-used in areas such as autonomous driving, autonomous machines and mapping.

News release regarding Kudan’s SLAM demonstration with Cepton at CES2020：
Kudan to demonstrate its LiDAR localization & mapping capability at CES2020 with Cepton Technologies

About Cepton Technologies, Inc.
Cepton is one of the world’s leading providers of state-of-the-art, intelligent, lidar-based solutions for a range of markets such as automotive (ADAS/AV), smart cities, smart spaces and smart industrial applications. Cepton’s patented MMT®-based lidar technology enables reliable, scalable and cost-effective solutions that deliver long range, high resolution 3D perception for smart applications.

Founded in 2016 and led by industry veterans with over two decades of collective experience across a wide range of advanced lidar and imaging technologies, Cepton is focused on the mass market commercialization of high performance, high quality lidar solutions. Cepton is headquartered in San Jose, California, USA, with a presence in Germany, Canada, Japan and India, to serve a fast-growing global customer base. For more information, visit www.cepton.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Kudan Inc.
Kudan (Tokyo Stock Exchange securities code: 4425) is a Deep Tech research and development company specializing in algorithms to enable artificial perception (AP). As a complement to artificial intelligence (AI), AP functions allow machines to develop autonomy. Currently, Kudan is using its high-level technical innovation to explore business areas based on its own milestone models established for Deep Tech which provide wide-ranging impact on several major industrial fields.
For more information, please refer to Kudan’s website at https://www.kudan.io/.

■Company Details
Name: Kudan Inc.
Securities Code: 4425
Representative: CEO Daiu Ko