Oslo-based company Sonair has always been on the cutting edge of robotic safety. This revised equipment extends far beyond a renovated ADAR (acoustic detection and ranging) sensor with the use of high-frequency sound waves. This innovative technology hit the market earlier this year. It puts the power of three-dimensional perception into the hands of robots, making safety procedures smarter and more effective in industrial workplaces.
Sonair’s sensor provides industry-grade data, the intelligence needed to make a real impact. This guarantees interoperability across many different robotic hardware and software platforms. Flexibility is even more important in our current environment. As a result, companies across the industry have been clamoring to add Sonair’s sensors to their future robot models, demonstrating a clear appetite for improved safety for automation.
Sonair’s sensors can do much more than create an environmental map. They’re meant to specifically sense if a human is present in places where industrial equipment would be working. After detecting people walking into these zones, the sensors can automatically stop machines in their tracks, avoiding serious accidents and harms before they happen. This feature is especially timely as industrial safety is a growing concern among industries and sectors.
Knut Sandven, a representative from Sonair, explained that while humans largely rely on sight, sense is enormously important to robots as well.
“Perception for a human — what we’re using the most is our eyes, but we’re also using other senses to perceive our environment, our ears and our brain to interpret all our senses,” – Knut Sandven
Swire doubled down on the shortcomings of conventional robotic sensing techniques.
“The same is for robots or autonomous machines. They’re using cameras. Cameras are really great to understand the environment, but they’re not good for reliably detecting objects under all circumstances,” – Knut Sandven
This shows the need for a better, more nuanced method of robotic sensing like Sonair’s sonar-based technology. Unlike LIDAR, which is based on laser-based measurements, Sonair’s solution provides depth perception capabilities that are critical in crowded or complex environments.
“LIDAR is like swiping a laser pointer,” – Knut Sandven
Sonair’s sensors became famous, not just for their innovative function, but for the wealth of data they captured. Unsurprisingly, the company is booming, particularly on the industrial safety side. Non-profits, governments, and academic organizations are quickly putting this technology to practice and understanding its value to their work. Offering a unique, high-resolution three-dimensional view of the environment, Sonair’s sensors address key blind spots in today’s robotic capabilities.
Fady Saad, another key player at Sonair, touched on the sometimes forgotten safety issues that come into play when autonomous machines are involved.
“If this thing falls on pets or kids, it will hurt them, right? This is just one aspect of a big hurdle that no one is paying attention to, or very few people are paying attention to,” – Fady Saad
Sonair’s commitment to addressing these gaps reflects a broader vision: to make their technology as ubiquitous in robotics as cameras are today. According to the company, their recent $6 million funding round will be key in scaling up broader adoption of their sensor technology. This timely investment will make sure the technology gets into more hands of the growing robotics workforce.
