This concept is not easily definable with ADAR because a pulse is not sent out in a discrete angle. If you are familiar with LiDARs, angular resolution is the angular distance (in degrees) between distance measurements of 2 beams.

This does not apply to ADAR because it does not emit beams.The angular precision is 2° straight ahead and 10° to the sides. The sensor is able to distinguish between multiple detected objects, if the objects are separated by more than 2 cm in range relative to the sensor or by more than 15° from each other.If the two objects are positioned closer than 2 cm or 15° from each other, they will be detected as 1 object.

Precision is a measure of the statistical deviation of repeated measurements on a single object’s position.

The maximum number of points is very rarely a limitation to the sensor’s performance, because the total number of points needed to fully sense a scene is low. The ADAR technology reports 1 point per surface on any object, making the total number of points low. This is opposite to what one might be used to from LiDARs.

The relative sparsity of the point cloud is a fundamental feature of sound-based sensing, but this is not a sensor limitation as the point cloud will always contain at least 1 point per object within line of sight from the sensor.

ADAR does not do object classification. The sensor is for people and object detection.
‍

Yes, the sensor supports configurable ignore zones. These can be set by the user to prevent detection of known static objects, such as parts of the robot’s frame, ensuring they don’t trigger false positives.
‍

Full 3D. The sensor detects objects in front of the sensor, 180 degrees vertical, i.e. down to the floor and up to the ceiling, and 180 degrees horizontal, i.e. to each side of the sensor.

The sensor returns one detection point for each surface that reflects sound back towards it, which is a fundamental property of ultrasonic sensing.As a result, the data may appear sparse compared to the dense point clouds produced by LiDARs.

However, this does not mean that objects are missed. All objects located in the field of view that are within the detection capability are detected and reported, providing sufficient information for reliable and informed decision-making.Most objects, including people, have multiple surfaces and angles that reflect sound in different directions.

As a result, they typically return more than one point to the sensor.

Points appear where the sound waves bounce back to the sensor. This happens from any surface that has a normal pointing to the sensor. Sound is also reflected back by edges and corners.

For each surface or edge, the detection is positioned at the point on that surface or edge which is closest to the sensor.

In theory, the sensor would be capable of detecting a sudden drop, such as a stair or a cliff edge, provided the vertical distance is less than five meters.

However, in a practical scenario, such detection may occur too late for any meaningful corrective action to be taken, unless the robot is driving extremely slow, see illustration below

Yes. The sensor will the detect the upwards going stair as an object, if the stair has a vertical surface.

No, the sensor alone is not sufficient for navigation. The current product is a safety-oriented object detector and it needs to be combined with other sensors for navigation. We would suggest a low-cost 2D LiDAR scanner or a 2D camera.

Yes, we have methods to prevent crosstalk (or interference) between sensors. These methods will be implemented in our initial product release, although they will not be available in the evaluation kit.

Our plan for safety is to develop a sensor suitable for performance level d according to ISO13849:2023. The safety function is to detect obstacles within safety zone, and output to safety output. Plan for safety certification (Pld) product release is Q4 2025.

Sounds typically found in urban or industrial environments will not be an issue, even if they are perceived as loud for humans. Other ultrasonic sound sources can also be dealt with, because the sensor is able to filter out its own sound from the background noise.

20 Hz