Velodyne's Alpha Prime is a significant step forward in enabling the advancement of the autonomous vehicle and robot industries. Credit: Velodyne Lidar.

US-based Velodyne LiDAR has unveiled its lidar sensor, Alpha Prime, which uses the company’s patented surround-view technology.

The sensor delivers perception, field-of-view and range for autonomous markets such as transportation, trucking and robotics.

Alpha Prime allows vehicles to manoeuvre through new and unfamiliar situations.

The sensor offers 360° surround-view perception along with a 40° vertical field-of-view. It is also capable of performing in different lightings and detecting low reflectance objects and pedestrians at far-off distances.

Offering high-resolution, the sensor can aid in the detection of potholes and cracks.

Its other benefits include laser calibration and sensor-to-sensor interference mitigation, the company noted.

Velodyne Lidar CTO Anand Gopalan said: “The Alpha Prime is a significant step forward in enabling the advancement of the autonomous vehicle and robot industries. With its breadth of best-in-class features, the Alpha Prime is a marked advancement in sensor performance for real-world conditions.

“Here at Velodyne, we take pride in listening to our customers and delivering innovative and high-performance products. We believe Velodyne’s versatility and agility extend our leadership status in the lidar business to empower autonomous solutions on a global scale.”

Autonomous vehicle startup Voyage co-founder & CEO Oliver Cameron said: “Voyage has developed and deployed self-driving cars super-charged by Velodyne’s lidar technology for the past three years.

“Our team is amazed by the advancements in Alpha Prime and are continually impressed by Velodyne’s string of innovations.”

Last month, Velodyne LiDAR launched a new lidar-based advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) for autonomous vehicles, in partnership with Hyundai Mobis.