As part of their recent announcement, Velodyne Lidar released a new software development kit that will leverage Velyon’s Vella lidar perception technology for customers’ autonomous solutions. Companies can quickly and cost-effectively bring cutting-edge lidar technology to autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), mobile delivery devices, industrial robotics, and drones with the Vella Development Kit (VDK).
Vishal Jain, Vice President of Software Engineering, Velodyne Lidar, said, “The Vella Development Kit supports customers through the entire autonomous solution development lifecycle, from testing and evaluating sensors to building initial proofs of concept, to demonstrating complete applications. VDK enables developers and integrators to see the world differently by connecting them to the complete array of robust perception capabilities provided by Vella. They also have ongoing access to all the latest innovations that result from Velodyne’s continued leadership deploying lidar solutions throughout the world. VDK demonstrates Velodyne’s prowess in providing revolutionary sensors and software that allow companies to create autonomous solutions which transform lives through the advancement of safer mobility.”
Vella’s perception capabilities are based on machine learning (ML) algorithms trained on the massive Velodyne data sets, allowing autonomous movement on highways, streets, sidewalks, and warehouses. The Velodyne Development Kit was developed with input from automakers, application developers, as well as the Automated with Velodyne ecosystem.
With VDK, companies can utilize their development resources more efficiently by integrating 3D lidar sensors into applications with less time and effort. VDK’s Vella processing technologies help extract richer, more descriptive information from raw point clouds. Developers of autonomous systems without deep expertise in lidar processing can directly use these higher-level perception outputs such as object classification, velocity calculation, semantic scene segmentation, and obstacle detection.