SMART CITIES
Sensors enhance smart city project
T
he development of smart cities in the USA is being undertaken by the Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Programme, a consortium that has now been joined by liDAR technology specialist, Velodyne.
Smart cities can use Velodyne’s liDAR sensors to measure and monitor conditions in areas such as pedestrian safety, vehicle traffic, parking space management, speed measurement, V2X (vehicle to infrastructure) communications, queue and asset management, security and more. The sensors can collect highly accurate, detailed 3D information about people, vehicles, cyclists and public spaces while preserving anonymity and respecting individual privacy entitlement. Velodyne’s sensors provide rich computer perception data that make it quick and easy for developers, cities, municipalities, government agencies and enterprises to build highly accurate high-resolution image 3D models of any environment. Their durability, reliability, power- efficiency and versatility make them ideal for demanding smart city applications. Discussing the benefits of liDAR technology in the
development of smart city projects, Qualcomm’s head of platform product management for smart cities, Ashok Tipirneni, sees the sensors as being important for providing a transparent understanding of the smart environment, providing visualisation data. “Velodyne’s liDAR sensors and comprehensive 3D data can help equip our smart city member companies with enhanced safety measures and streamlined operations,” he says. Until recently, existing camera-based intelligent transport systems (ITS)-based traffic monitoring technologies have been widely used to study traffic
24 /// Testing & Test Houses /// March 2021
Smart city accelerator programme benefits from LiDAR sensors for traffic management and other applications
❱❱ Smart cities can use Velodyne’s liDAR sensors to measure and monitor conditions in areas such as vehicle traffic, pedestrian safety, parking space management and speed measurement
flow rates, occupancy, average speed and spot speed. However, as alternative sensors come onto the market, the weaknesses of camera-based approaches become more apparent. For example, cameras have been shown to suffer in low-light conditions, are prone to optical disturbances and have issues relating to privacy legislation. In contrast, liDAR sensors provide robust 3D data that allows for superior object detection and tracking in a wide variety of lighting and weather conditions. Furthermore, the sensors are unable to recognise a person’s characteristics, such as their face, gender or the colour of their skin, making it an ideal sensor to support the needs of municipalities without compromising their citizens’ privacy. With Velodyne liDAR, smart city applications can advance safety, social welfare and operational efficiency. As a real-time application demonstration of the
significant value that Velodyne’s liDAR can bring to smart city applications, Velodyne and Qualcomm Technologies plan to deploy a Velodyne sensor on the Qualcomm Smart Campus testing facility. The liDAR is intended to be placed indoors to track people as they move around in a public space. The data can help Qualcomm Technologies to detect traffic and usage patterns so the company can better understand utilisation rates and make adjustments to facilities. Velodyne worked with Infinite Computer Solutions and Seoul Robotics to build the application.
According to Jon Barad, vice-president of business
development at Velodyne, the combination of Velodyne’s liDAR technology and Qualcomm Technologies’ edge computing and 5G capabilities creates a powerful asset for developers to make their smart city ideas a potent system. T&TH
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