Hesai

A Chinese leader in 3D LiDAR

Hesai Technology makes 3D LiDAR sensors, with a global operations center in Shanghai, an office in Palo Alto and a European branch in Böblingen, Germany. The company says it works with carmakers and autonomous-driving firms in more than 40 countries. Someone else builds the robots; Hesai supplies the sensor that tells a robot what is around it.

Sensor families

The range falls into three groups. The automotive series comprises ET/ETX (long range, 120°), AT (AT128 and derivatives) and the solid-state, short-range FTX. The robotics-oriented series are JT (mini 360° sensors, the JT128/64P with a very wide field of view, and JT32/16) and the high-resolution MT for 3D reconstruction. General-purpose sensors are XT (360°, mid-range), OT128 (the flagship, long range), Pandar and QT128 (360°, short range, very wide field of view).

Our materials include user manuals for the Pandar128E3X (version 4.5), AT128P, PandarXT, PandarXT-16 (16-channel, mid-range) and QT128C2X. They describe channel distribution, multi-section fields of view, a default clockwise rotation and control through a web interface and PTC commands. In its information on the Pandar128 family the manufacturer cites 128 channels, a 200 m range at 10 percent reflectivity, a 360° × 40° field (−25° to +15° vertically), 0.1° × 0.125° resolution and up to 3.46 million points per second in single return; the weight is 1.95 kg. We give these figures as family data, not for the specific E3X variant.

What a robot needs LiDAR for

A 3D scan lets a robot build a map, work out its position and avoid obstacles; the terms are explained in “Robotics Glossary: 65 Terms with Polish Equivalents”. In mobile robots for warehouses — examples are described in “AMR Robots in the Warehouse” — cheaper 2D scanners, for example from SICK or Hokuyo, are the more common choice, and the more expensive 3D sensor goes where a full three-dimensional scene is needed. For vehicles and field robots and for robots meant to work outdoors (see construction sites), 3D LiDAR is a core sensor. Hesai's competitor is Ouster. Depth cameras, usually cheaper and shorter-range, come from Orbbec, Luxonis and Intel RealSense.

On quadruped robots and humanoid robots a LiDAR may be mounted on the head or torso; processing the data needs a powerful onboard computer such as NVIDIA Jetson. We assign no specific models here.

Cost, Europe and Poland

A 3D sensor of the Pandar128 class is an item that can exceed the cost of an entire simple mobile robot; we publish no prices because we have no reliable price list. That is one reason the cheaper JT, XT-16 and QT128 series matter to integrators. We found no Polish distributor; the company does, however, have a European office in Germany, which receives inquiries from the region. For purchases in publicly supported projects it is worth checking early for restrictions on suppliers from outside the EU and for service support. More on robotics in the country: “Polish Robotics Companies”.