November 3, 2008 – MobileRobots Inc announces its MobileRanger Outdoors, a moderately priced stereo vision sensor ready for rough-duty exterior use in varied terrain and under moderately severe weather conditions. MobileRanger Outdoors means that roboticists can begin designing commercial robots that can safely operate outdoors for security, agricultural, landscaping, delivery, military and other applications. Lightweight, low-draw MobileRanger Outdoors, listed at only $4,395, greatly expands the options for affordable field, yard and street robots. New MobileRanger Outdoors deploys premium automotive quality lenses, pre-calibrated and solidly embedded with excellent glare- and scratch-resistance with accurate measurement even in driving rain.
The handsome, precision-aluminum case protects hardened electronics under moderately severe conditions such as driving rain. The FPGA board included with MobileRanger stereo vision offers excellent speed and resolution, with 30 fps, programmable to 60 fps, with 752 X 480 pixels, measuring 2-billion-pixel-disparities-per-second. With progressive scan, global shutter, and low-noise imaging technology, MobileRanger helps robot developers to better detect, avoid, identify, track, and visualize objects outdoors. Navigation sensors for robots -- such as lasers, radar, flash lidar, high-definition lidar and stereovision cameras -- often are extremely expensive and perform poorly under the harsh terrain, lighting, precipitation and abrasion conditions met outdoors.
Two-dimensional sensors such as planar range-finding lasers work well with robots indoors. However, in less predictable outdoor spaces, robots require 3D sensing to handle organic obstacles and cliffs. Most 3D sensors, such as nodding lasers and high-definition and flash lidar, are heavy, power-hungry and costly, limiting their applicability. MobileRobots Inc has just begun to expand into the robotic sensor industry. Says William Kennedy, CTO of MobileRobots Inc, “We buy when possible; build when necessary.
Because we’re pushing the limits of autonomous robotics, we’re finding we need sensors and accessories that don’t exist yet. When that happens, we have to create them.”
About MobileRobots Inc
Founded in 1995, MobileRobots Inc is a global leader in the design and manufacture of autonomous mobile bases, sensing systems, and software “Making YOUR Job Easier” for use by robot application developers, OEMs and researchers. Thousands of MobileRobots’ platforms are used on six continents by leading organizations around the world.
