A New Lidar Sensor Could Check Electric Cars for Gas Leaks, Temperature, and More, Researchers Say

Researchers from China's Harbin Institute of Technology have developed a multifunctional light detection and ranging (lidar) system that, they say, is able to both provide high-precision ranging information alongside multi-parameter sensing — from ambient temperatures to liquid densities and gas concentrations.

"A multifunctional FMCW [Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave] lidar system is proposed for the first time," the team says by way of introduction to the work, "which has ability of 3D imaging of objects in free space and sensing of multi-parameter simultaneously. In the lidar module, the distance of the target can be calculated from the optical path difference between the collimator reflection peak and the target reflection peak. [Other paramters] can be demodulated respectively from their reflection peaks in spatial domain by IFT [Inverse Fourier Transform]."

Lidar works similarly to classical radar, except rather than radio waves laser light is beamed out and the reflections captured to measure the distance to objects — rapidly scanning to build up a three-dimensional depth map of the sensor's surroundings. The team's new approach, though, allows the same lidar to be used to act as a sensor for other information including environmental conditions, gas concentrations, and even the densities of target liquids.

"In [proof of concept] experiments," the team explains, "the imaging of a plastic plate with a 'HIT' symbol placed 30m [around 100'] away is realized. Sulfuric acid solution is used as candidates for monitoring various aspects such as temperature, electrolyte density. And three mixed gases (C₂H₂, CO₂ and CH₄) are filled in a multi-pass cell (MPC) for the monitoring of gas leakage."

"The presented technique can simultaneously realize the key functions of automatic driving system and battery management of the new energy vehicle with only one demodulator," the researchers say of the real-world potential for their new system. "It holds widespread application potential in the field of new energy vehicles, which is expected to provide a new integrated solution to improve the safety of new energy vehicles."

The team's work has been published in the journal Light: Advanced Manufacturing under open-access terms.