INTERVIEW: ENTREPRENEURSHIP


Sensing the way forwards


EPIC’s Carlos Lee hears about Jorma Palmén’s strategy for growing Ladimo, launched four years ago, which develops real-time 3D imaging for robotics, healthcare and navigating hazardous environments


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Demonstration of 3D imaging capability on a human vs human model


Can you tell us about your background and how it led to the creation of Ladimo? My background is in geology and mineralogy, specialising in applied mineralogy and optical crystallography. I was a lecturer at Aalto University [in Finland] teaching engineering geology. One topic I covered with my students was mapping rock structures in excavated tunnels. This was a hostile environment to work in, as boulders could have fallen from the tunnel walls at any time. For that reason, I decided to use stereo photogrammetry, a mapping technique that


works rather well. It requires using stereo image barriers from the rock walls, but later you can go back to your office (a safe environment) to map the 3D structures. My contribution to this field came about one Sunday afternoon, when all of a sudden I found that it could be possible to map rock structures in real time with no difficulties, by using structured light in a special way. And with the resulting artefacts, you get to the 3D model in stereo-imaging. The principle of this innovation was so clear, I came up with the idea in one short moment. The very next day I informed the


innovation department at Aalto University and they gave me €50,000 to develop a prototype. Half a year later, the prototype was finished and we filed for a patent and applied for more research funding. With the help of colleagues, it took five months to come up with a first working prototype. At the beginning of 2014, a development


Jorma Palmén (right) with Carlos Lee 14 Electro Optics October 2019


project was started with €500,000 in funding. In one and a half years we developed a pre-product level prototype. Then, when the money ran out, in 2015, I launched Ladimo with our present CEO Jouni Halme, and began developing the product. I started working full-time with the company in April 2015 as the CTO. Afterwards, another employee, who worked with us on the university project, also joined the company. Jouni, who was CEO of Nanofoot at the time, was working part-time for the first half of the year, then became full-time when Nanofoot found a replacement. The technology was already validated when Ladimo began, but we built the design software from scratch.


Tell me more about this innovation – how does it work and what are its applications? The technology can measure the surrounding environment and surfaces in real time, with very short latency (10 milliseconds or less), and an accuracy 100 times greater than was possible before. It can do this with a bill of materials lower than lidar systems with the nearest quality.


“We have started miniaturising the product to the level needed for integration into robotics, thanks to the help of one big customer, and secured funding for the next step of our product development”


In simple terms, our technology sends out a high number of laser points (2,509 points at present) to the target area, then measures the form of the target exactly. All the points are measured very rapidly and at once – this is done one hundred times in a second. Further, the technology can take measurements at distances of around 40 metres, but this figure will soon increase. The application is very significant to autonomous driving and robotics. For instance, robots are unable to see clearly and must be fed with information from their surroundings, which our technology can provide in real time. More than that, our technology can boost a robot’s sense of touch, as the technology can sense when the robot’s hands are about to touch the target object and inform the robot in a very short span of time. Our technology can measure with an accuracy down to a


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Ladimo


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