LORD Corporation, a global provider in sensing systems, has partnered with Emesent, an award-winning company in autonomous technology for industrial drones, to bring industry-leading inertial sensors to the Hovermap platform. Hovermap automates the collection and analysis of data in challenging GPS-denied environments, reportedly delivering revolutionary efficiency, safety and operational insights to various industries, including the underground industry. LORD inertial sensors enable Hovermap technology by providing precise position, orientation and velocity information in a small and lightweight package.
“LORD inertial sensors come with a common protocol and advanced software–integrating the best-in-class low noise, low drift gyros and accelerometers,” said Muj Haidri, Director of LORD Sensing, in a press release. “Hovermap is the first drone payload of its kind, operating in the challenging environments that our inertial sensors are designed to excel in. We are proud to be associated with such a leading edge and innovative company as Emesent.”
As a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) -based LiDAR mapping and autonomy payload, Hovermap relies on LORD inertial sensors to aid the SLAM solution in real-time. Hovermap’s advanced autonomy algorithms build on this real-time SLAM solution to allow autonomous flight in GPS-denied environments with omni-directional LiDAR-based collision avoidance. This enables safe autonomous drone flight indoors, underground or up-close to structures for mapping and inspection. Hovermap is used for underground mine mapping, asset management in telecom, transmissions, towers, wind turbines and bridges, as well as energy powerline inspections and construction building monitoring.
“We have stringent requirements for a light-weight, robust and reliable sensor, and LORD Corporation inertial sensors have a proven track record in the autonomy space,” said Dr. Stefan Hrabar, CEO of Emesent. “After more than two years of testing in our prototypes, we were happy with their innovative solution and have built this into the commercial Hovermap payload.”
This partnership and combined effort resulted in an optimal, efficient and safe data capture solution which provides insights to challenging GPS-denied environments.
More information about the products featured in this partnership can be found on the Emesent and LORD Sensing, MicroStrain websites. For an interactive experience highlighting LORD innovations and solutions around the world, visit Innovating Together.
