This paper presents the development and evaluation of a medical service robot equipped with 3D LiDAR and advanced localization capabilities for use in hospital environments. The robot employs LiDAR-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping SLAM to navigate autonomously and interact effectively within complex and dynamic healthcare settings. A comparative analysis with established 3D SLAM technology in Autoware version 1.14.0, under a Linux ROS framework, provided a benchmark for evaluating our system performance. The adaptation of Normal Distribution Transform NDT Matching to indoor navigation allowed for precise real-time mapping and enhanced obstacle avoidance capabilities. Empirical validation was conducted through manual maneuvers in various environments, supplemented by ROS simulations to test the system response to simulated challenges. The findings demonstrate that the robot integration of 3D LiDAR and NDT Matching significantly improves navigation accuracy and operational reliability in a healthcare context. This study highlights the robot ability to perform essential tasks with high efficiency and identifies potential areas for further improvement, particularly in sensor performance under diverse environmental conditions. The successful deployment of this technology in a hospital setting illustrates its potential to support medical staff and contribute to patient care, suggesting a promising direction for future research and development in healthcare robotics.

Scientists have uncovered a secret Mayan city hiding in Mexico, which once featured an urban landscape of more than 6,500 structures. The team used lidar technology to create three-dimensional models across 50 miles of land in Campeche, allowing them to map areas not visible to the naked eye. The method revealed a 21-square-mile metropolis with iconic stone pyramids, houses and other infrastructure that have been concealed for more than 3,000 years. There are hundreds of documented Mayan sites, but the newest find revealed that researchers aren't close to finding all the major Maya cities. 'Our analysis not only revealed a picture of a region that was dense with settlements, but it also revealed a lot of variability,' said the study's co-author, Luke Auld-Thomas, a doctoral student at Tulane University. 'We didn't just find rural areas and smaller settlements.

A new young billionaire has taken the mantle as the "world's youngest self-made billionaire" after his self-driving technology company Luminar Technologies Inc. (LAZR) went public in December 2020. Some have taken to calling 26-year-old Austin Russell the "next Elon Musk." Russell has an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion. He was recently featured on Forbes' "40 Under 40" list for 2021 but he really jumped on the tech scene in 2020 due to the success of Luminar. Luminar IPO makes 25-year old Austin Russell one of world's first, and youngest, self-driving billionaires https://t.co/R3fVTTzE2t

Third-generation system from French car parts giant said to improve range and resolution dramatically. Valeo, one of the world's largest providers of car parts and a leading supplier of sensors for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), is set to release new scanning lidar technology with claims of much-improved range and resolution. The Paris-listed company, which manufactures its lidar systems in southern Germany, says that the "third-generation" design will be launched to the market in 2024. "This new technology, which offers significantly enhanced performance, makes autonomous mobility a reality and provides previously unseen levels of road safety," announced the firm. The system is said to be capable of reconstructing a 3D real-time image of the vehicle's surroundings at a rate of 4.5 million pixels and 25 frames per second. "Compared with the previous generation, the resolution has been increased 12-fold, the range 3-fold, and the viewing angle 2.5-fold," Valeo added.

Poland still bears the scars from thousands of bombs that hit the nation in WWII – and a new map has uncovered 6,000 of the impact sites. Researchers at the University of Silesia used LIDAR technology to map the Koźle Basin, allowing them to peer through vegetation and see impact sites across and deep within the ground. The craters ranged in size from 16 to 49 feet in diameter, with some parts found with up to 30 craters in just one acre of land. The craters are a reminder of the historical event, but the impact sites have also intertwined with nature over the past 75 years, turning into bodies of water and homes for wildlife. The bombs were dropped by Allied planes above Koźle Basin, which at the time of WWII was occupied by Nazi soldiers and home to a number of their fuel production plants.

Continental AG is taking a minority stake in AEye Inc., a Dublin, California-based developer of LiDAR technology, in order to bring its autonomous vehicle technology to commercial vehicles sooner. Specifically, AEye, founded in 2013, has developed a long-range LiDAR system that can detect vehicles at a distance of more than 300 meters and pedestrians at more than 200 meters. Continental hopes the investment will enhance its current short-range LiDAR technology that is slated to go into production by the end of 2020. Then the AEye system would be deployed in a automotive passenger or commercial vehicle later this decade. "We now have optimum short-range and long-range LiDAR technologies with their complimentary sets of benefits under one roof," said Frank Petznick, head of Continental's advanced driver assistance systems, in a statement.

Road Watch 2.0 Vision Zero Pedestrian Deaths Project: Learn how an award-winning Richmond Hill and York Regional Police road safety Road Watch program is the base for a space age approach to make Toronto roads safer, as kicked off on the Global News 640 AM John Oakley Show. Hear a plan to make roads safer while mitigating climate through earth and Space LiDAR technology. Learn how road safety and climate change mitigation is combined in the Ethical AI Energy Cloud City master plan, a UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals Emerging Technology Framework to Unite Society. Dave D'Silva founded Intelligent Market Solutions Group (IMSG) to make good on a University of Waterloo pact with Bill Gates. IMSG is a socio-economic emerging technology project management firm creating Star Trek inspired Ethical AI systems.

With the notable exception of Elon Musk's Tesla Inc, most automakers have said their self-driving cars will rely on a detection system known as lidar. The state of the art sensors use laser light pulses to render precise images of the environment around the car. Pressure to launch self-driving cars is already pushing many players to place bets on the technology. General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and BMW are expected to deploy sensors from well-funded lidar startups Velodyne and Innoviz on their initial self-driving cars over the next two years. More than $1 billion in corporate and private investment has been plowed into some 50 lidar startups over the past three years, including a record $420 million in 2018, according to a Reuters analysis of publicly available investment data.

On March 18, 2018, Elaine Herzberg became the first pedestrian in the world to be killed by an autonomous vehicle after being hit by a self-driving Uber SUV in Tempe, AZ, at about 10 p.m. Video released by the local police department showed the self-driving Volvo XC90 did not appear to see Herzberg, as it did not slow down or alter course, even though she was visible in front of the vehicle prior to impact. Subsequently, automotive engineering experts raised questions about Uber's LiDAR technology.12 LiDAR, or "light detection and ranging," uses pulsed laser light to enable a self-driving car to see its surroundings hundreds of feet away. Velodyne, the supplier of the Uber vehicle's LiDAR technology, said, "Our LiDAR is capable of clearly imaging Elaine and her bicycle in this situation. However, our LiDAR does not make the decision to put on the brakes or get out of her way" ... "We know absolutely nothing about the engineering of their [Uber's] part ... It is a proprietary secret, and all of our customers keep this part to themselves"15 ... and "Our LiDAR can see perfectly well in the dark, as well as it sees in daylight, producing millions of points of information. However, it is up to the rest of the system to interpret and use the data to make decisions. We do not know how the Uber system of decision making works."11

Some call it a marvel of technology. Self-driving cars are constantly making the headlines. These vehicles, designed to carry passengers from point A to B without a human maneuver, are promised to bring greater mobility, reduce street congestion and fuel consumption, and create safer roads. Driverless vehicles are hardly a novel concept anymore, but what is really going on in the autonomous car industry? How do self-driving cars work?