Development of a Low Cost, Solid State LIDAR and Camera Processing Module Using COTS Parts for Open Source Development of Autonomous Vehicle Systems

Since the invention of the automobile, engineers have been designing and making newer and newer improvements to them in order to provide customers with safer, faster, more reliable, and more comfortable vehicles. With each new generation, new technology can be seen being introduced into mainstream products, one of which that is currently being pushed is that of autonomy. Established brand manufacturers and small research teams have been dedicated for years to find a way to make the automobile autonomous with none of them being able to confidently answer that they have found a solution. Among the engineering community there are two schools of thought when solving this issue: camera and LiDAR; some believe that only cameras and computer vision are required while other believe that LiDAR is the solution. The most optimal case is to use both cameras and LiDAR’s together in order to increase reliability and ensure data confidence. Designers are reluctant to use LiDAR systems due to their massive weight, cost, and complexity; with too many moving components, these systems are very bulky and have multiple costly, moving parts that eventually need replacement due to their constant motion. The solution to this problem is to develop a solid-state LiDAR system which would solve all those issues previously stated and this research takes it one level further and looks into a potential prototype for a solid-state camera and Lidar package. Currently no manufacturer offers a system that contains a solid-state LiDAR system and a solid-state camera with computing capabilities, all manufacturers provided either just the camera, just the Lidar, or just the computation ability. This design will also use of the shelf COTS parts in order to increase reproducibility for open-source development and to reduce total manufacturing cost. While keeping costs low, this design is also able to keep its specs and performance on par with that of a well-used commercial product, the Velodyne VL50.