Next-gen 3D cameras could see robots work inside and out with ease

And although this change has been able to be enacted in certain, more controlled environments, robots that are faced with multiple environments of varying light have so far had an additional set of sensory challenges that Jabil is currently working on addressing.

"Our team at Jabil Optics has designed a 3D camera that operates at 1130 nanometres. And the rationale for that was the trend towards autonomous platforms [which] require sensors that can operate both in and outdoors," Jabil Optics Senior Director Ian Blasch tells Electronic Specifier.

Jabil, a global manufacturing company, has been involved with 3D sensing for over a decade due to its own use of AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots).But several of its customer had also recently come to it asking for components that could help their robots execute this inside-outside transition. "Badger Technologies, which is a Jabil-owned robotics company that builds robots that work in retail establishments, like in grocery stores, have experienced some issues with ambient light. We also had some customers that were working outdoors with robots and gave us specifications, and what we did is we pulled these sorts of different requirements and needs from several customers, and our own internal customer from Badger,to identify this gap," Blasch explains.

This led the company to create what it dubs a next-gen 3D camera. What makes it next gen? Working on the device for around 12 months, Jabil's concept worked on how to get illumination sources to a level and reliable point to make the solution work. It was made possible due to sensors gaining the ability to capture shortwave infrared and illumination sources that emit at 1130and 1380 wavelengths.

It uses a SWIR-based camera, with 16 lasers,that expands 3D sensing operation into environments with bright sunlight or 100Klux."The limitation with many of the current sensors is that they've been working, whether it's structured light, active stereo or time of flight they use a form of active illumination at 850 nanometres or 940 nanometres. But the atmosphere of the Sun basically puts photons out at 850 and 940. So if it's bright sunlight, you can completely saturate your sensor, in which case you're not getting any signal or depth data, or you're getting some light coming in and it's corrupting sort of the quality of your signal. And so your accuracy goes down as to where the distance of the objects in the scene are."

Blasch goes on to explain how the company,when building this sensor,went out and looked at the Earth's atmosphere. Using the premise that the earth absorbs more photons at 1130 and 1380nanometres,less photons from these wavelengths actually make it to the Earth's surface. This, Blasch explained, allowed them to balance their signal to noise ratio, reducing the noise by targeting the 1130 and 1380 nanometres.The other element was based on a theory that as you get to longer wavelengths, you can put more power out onto the scene or optical power without violating laser eye safety thresholds: "And so if you go back to signal to noise ratio, you basically can increase the amount of signal on the scene and you reduce the noise. So, your ratio goes up and the quality of the sensing solution gets much better. So, Jabil said, hey, you know, we can help the industry putting our R&D team together and focus in on proving this concept out and then sharing the results."

Blasch explains that sensory specs on current devices when transitioning to a different lighting level mean it could be robbed of a lot of its informational input due to the light disturbances. This mean it is less accurate (sometimes to the point it may not be able to properly function) in performing its task or navigating a space.Therefore, the company's camera is designed to better handle this light, and allow a more seamless transition to different lighting conditions without losing data input. "You wouldn't go out and buy an automobile without headlights and so our belief is WHY would you spend $20-30,000 on an AMR that can't work outdoors, right?" says Blasch.

The device isn't just aimed at future applications, as sensors being corrupted by this ambient light can pose an issue for the companies that currently use these in a warehouse setting. "Warehouses, or retail settings and others have windows, you have open bays for loading and unloading of trucks and there's still a failure mode when ambient light can hit sensor seven in indoor settings and cause problems or increase safety hazards because you're in a sense, blinding the sensor and not giving as high quality or accurate data," says Blasch. In some cases, robots with these sensors that operate even within controlled lighting areas may have to have their route planned in a way that avoids even small windows that let in ambient light.

Jabil has touted its 3D camera as next-gen and that's because it believes current sensors inability to work in these varying lighting levels means that these sensors as a whole are not finished. "We're trying to push the sensing suite further so that it becomes just implicit in the future that you can build AMRs that move indoors and outdoors. So, you extend the mission of those robots, especially since they're pretty significant capital investments for material handling and factories and other companies that have to employ those solutions."

Jabil has set a date that will see its evaluation kits released in summer 2023, its MP Reference Design in the autumn, and its design will be based on the release of new components, with a 2024 date being pegged for a more full release.