Perception Sensors — Family Index

Robotics-focused extension of sensor-families. Coverage is restricted to exteroceptive perception sensors — devices that measure the world outside the robot’s body. IMU / encoder / force-torque / tactile families live in the parent sensor-families index. Real product names, manufacturers, and technology generations are listed throughout. SI units primary.

1. At a glance

The exteroceptive sensor zoo for mobile robots, autonomous vehicles, manipulators, drones, and surgical / inspection platforms partitions into seven major families:

• LiDAR — scanning (Velodyne, Ouster), MEMS-mirror (Innoviz, Hesai AT128), OPA / optical phased array (Quanergy, Analog Photonics), flash (Continental HFL110), and FMCW (Aeva, Aurora). 905 nm vs 1550 nm wavelength tradeoff.
• Depth cameras — Time-of-Flight indirect-CW (Azure Kinect DK, Lucid Helios2), direct-ToF SPAD (Sony IMX590 in iPhone Pro), structured-light (Photoneo PhoXi, Zivid 2+), passive stereo (ZED 2i), active stereo with IR projector (Intel RealSense D455), plenoptic / light-field (Raytrix).
• RGB cameras — global-shutter machine-vision (Basler ace, FLIR Blackfly), rolling-shutter consumer (Sony IMX477, Pi HQ), auto-grade AEC-Q100 (Sony IMX490 / OnSemi AR0231-AT), smartphone-flagship 1-inch (Sony IMX989).
• Event / DVS cameras — Prophesee Gen4 (Sony IMX636), iniVation DAVIS346; microsecond latency, > 120 dB HDR, sparse asynchronous output.
• Radar (mm-wave FMCW) — 24 GHz, 60 GHz, 77 GHz; auto-grade long-range (Continental ARS-548) vs robotics-package SoC (TI IWR6843AOP, Infineon BGT60TR13C).
• Ultrasonic — 40–180 kHz air-coupled ToF for proximity and park-assist.
• Thermal IR — uncooled microbolometers in 8–14 µm LWIR (FLIR Lepton 3.5, Boson 640).

Selection is driven by range, angular resolution, framerate / point-rate, illumination requirements (active vs passive), and environmental robustness (rain / fog / direct sun / darkness).

2. LiDAR — scanning vs solid-state

2.1 Mechanical scanning (spinning) LiDAR

• Velodyne VLP-16 (Puck, legacy) — 16-channel, 30° vertical FoV, 100 m range, 300 k pts/s, 590 g; the workhorse of academic SLAM through 2018–2022.
• Velodyne VLP-32C — 32-channel, ±10°/-15° asymmetric, 200 m, 600 k pts/s; KITTI’s HDL-64E successor for many auto fleets.
• Velodyne HDL-32E / HDL-64E — 32 / 64 channels; HDL-64E used in original DARPA Urban Challenge stacks (Stanford, CMU Boss) and KITTI dataset capture.
• Velodyne Alpha Prime (VLS-128) — 128-channel, 300 m range, ±20° vertical, 2.6 M pts/s; used by Waymo, Cruise, Motional, Zoox.
• Ouster OS-0 — 32 / 64 / 128 channel, 90° vertical FoV, 50 m range; designed for indoor mapping where wide vertical sweep matters more than range.
• Ouster OS-1 — 32 / 64 / 128 ch, 33° vertical, 120 m; the standard outdoor mid-range puck for service robotics and academia.
• Ouster OS-2 — 32 / 64 / 128 ch, 22° vertical, 240 m range; auto-grade long-range.
• Rotation rates — 5, 10, 15, 20 Hz typical; Ouster scales with multi-beam VCSEL arrays + digital signal processing rather than time-to-digital converter banks.
• Point rate — 600 k–2.6 M points/s scaling with channel count × rotation rate × azimuthal resolution.
• Valeo SCALA (Gen 1, 2017) — first series-production automotive LiDAR, shipped on Audi A8 L3 Traffic Jam Pilot.

2.2 MEMS-mirror LiDAR

• Innoviz One — first series-prod auto LiDAR after Valeo, shipping on BMW iX (2022+); 905 nm, 250 m, MEMS mirror.
• Innoviz Two — 250–300 m, higher angular resolution, design wins with Volkswagen group and BMW iX5 Hydrogen.
• Hesai AT128 — 128-line MEMS, 200 m at 10% reflectivity, used by Li Auto, NIO, Xpeng in 2023–2026 Chinese EVs.
• Hesai ET25 — newer ultra-thin MEMS unit for in-windshield mounting.
• MicroVision MAVIN — long-range MEMS for highway autonomy.
• Beyond Sensing M1-Plus — Chinese MEMS contender, 200 m class.

2.3 OPA — optical phased array (no moving parts)

• Quanergy S3 — early OPA promise; company became insolvent 2023.
• Analog Photonics — silicon photonics OPA development.
• LightIC — chip-scale OPA prototypes.

OPA is the long-term holy grail (no moving parts, fully solid-state, beam steered electronically) but lags scanning LiDAR in commercial volume.

2.4 Flash LiDAR

• Continental HFL110 — automotive short-range flash, used as SRR in some L2+ ADAS stacks.
• Sense Photonics Osprey — flash LiDAR for AV perception.
• Leica TruView — geodetic survey flash systems.

Flash illuminates the entire FoV in a single pulse and reads return per pixel; trades range for simplicity (no scanning hardware).

2.5 FMCW LiDAR (coherent / Doppler)

• Aeva Aeries II / Aeries III — Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave; measures per-point instantaneous velocity via Doppler shift in addition to range. Immune to interference between sensors. Deployed at Daimler Truck (Aeries III) and Continental partnership.
• Mobileye / Intel FMCW — internal silicon-photonics FMCW for the Mobileye Drive stack, 2024 series-prod.
• Aurora FirstLight — long-range FMCW developed for trucking autonomy.

FMCW’s velocity-per-point output makes motion-segmentation and ego-velocity estimation trivial, but the architecture is far more complex than pulsed ToF.

2.6 Wavelength tradeoff

• 905 nm — silicon detectors (cheap APD), eye-safety limits transmit power, water absorption modest. Velodyne, Ouster, Innoviz, most consumer-grade.
• 1550 nm — InGaAs detectors, eye-safe at much higher power (Class-1 safe at higher peak), better penetration of rain / haze, longer range achievable. Aeva, Luminar Iris, Aurora FirstLight.

1550 nm wins on range and robustness; 905 nm wins on cost.

3. Auto-grade LiDAR vendor landscape, 2026

Vendor	Product	Tech	OEM design wins
Valeo	SCALA 3	Scanning 905 nm	Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz
Luminar	Iris, Halo	Scanning 1550 nm	Volvo EX90, NIO ET7, Mercedes EQS
Innoviz	Innoviz Two	MEMS 905 nm	BMW iX5 Hydrogen, VW Group
Hesai	AT128, ET25	MEMS 905 nm	Li Auto, NIO, Xpeng
Robosense	M1, M2	MEMS 905 nm	Geely, GAC, BYD
Aeva	Aeries III	FMCW 1550 nm	Daimler Truck, Continental
Cepton	Vista	MMT scanning	Cadillac Lyriq, GM future programs
AEye	4Sight	Agile scanning	ITS and select auto programs
Continental	HFL110	Flash 905 nm	Auto SRR for L2+
Quanergy	—	OPA	Insolvent 2023
Ibeo	—	Flash	Acquired by MicroVision 2022

4. UAV and mapping LiDAR

• Velodyne Puck (legacy) — 590 g; early drone integration.
• Velodyne Ultra Puck — VLP-32C in drone configuration.
• Livox Mid-360 — DJI sister-company puck with 360° horizontal × 59° vertical; popular for quadruped (Unitree, Boston Dynamics Spot CAM+) and UAV.
• Livox Avia / Horizon — non-repetitive scanning pattern fills FoV densely over time.
• Hesai PandarXT — mapping-grade 32-line.
• Quanergy M8 — prosumer survey unit.
• RIEGL miniVUX — survey-grade UAV LiDAR.
• Velodyne VLS-128 — full autonomy-stack LiDAR for larger payload UAV.

Integrated UAV mapping payloads:

• DJI Zenmuse L1 — integrated 905 nm LiDAR + RGB + IMU on the M300 RTK; the dominant survey-grade UAV system 2021–2024.
• DJI Zenmuse L2 — successor on M350 RTK with higher point rate and improved IMU.
• GreenValley LiAir — survey-grade UAV LiDAR + camera.
• Phoenix LiDAR Systems — high-end aerial mapping payloads.

5. Indoor / short-range LiDAR (1–100 m)

• RPLidar A1 / A2 / A3 / S1 / S2 (Slamtec) — $50–$700 hobby and service-robot 2D scanners; A1 (12 m), S2 (30 m solid-state).
• Hokuyo URG-04LX — venerable 4 m indoor 2D scanner (240° × 0.36°).
• Hokuyo UST-10LX / UST-30LX — 10 m / 30 m industrial 2D scanners with Ethernet; clean-room and lab-robot mainstays.
• Sick TIM5xx / LMS5xx — industrial AGV 2D scanners; LMS5xx is the warehouse-AGV reference.

Safety-rated (IEC 61496-3, PLd / SIL-2) 2D scanners for collaborative robotics and AGV obstacle-avoidance:

• Sick microScan3 — class-leading safety scanner, up to 9 m protective field.
• Hokuyo UAM-05LP — compact safety-rated 5 m.
• Pilz PSEN sc — safety-laser scanner family.

6. Depth camera technologies

6.1 Stereo (passive)

• Stereolabs ZED 2i — binocular stereo with GPU-disparity; 20 m depth, integrated IMU; common on autonomous mobile robots and quadrupeds.
• Intel RealSense D435 / D435i / D405 / D455 / D456 — passive stereo with optional IR projector to assist matching on textureless surfaces; D456 is IP-rated outdoor variant.
• ZED X — stereo with industrial-grade enclosure and GMSL2.
• FLIR Blackfly S Stereo Pair — custom-built calibrated stereo from machine-vision cameras.

6.2 Active stereo (IR projector + stereo IR)

• Intel RealSense D-series — projects a randomized IR dot pattern; stereo-matching the IR images recovers depth on textureless walls. The series workhorse for indoor mobile robotics 2018–2026.
• Orbbec Astra+ / Femto — Chinese active-stereo, often used after the Kinect-v2 discontinuation.

6.3 Structured-light

• Microsoft Kinect v1 (PrimeSense, 2010) — IR speckle pattern + monocular IR camera; the device that started consumer 3D perception. Hardware end-of-life.
• Apple iPhone TrueDepth FaceID (2017+) — IR dot projector + IR camera for face authentication.
• Photoneo PhoXi M / MotionCam — rolling-grating structured-light; manufacturing-grade quality control and bin-picking.
• Zivid 2+ — Norwegian high-precision color + depth at 1080p; the reference for high-end manufacturing inspection.
• Cognex 3D-A1000 / 3D-L4000 — industrial structured-light + laser-line.
• Mech-Mind PRO M / PRO S — Chinese industrial structured-light bin-picking.
• Cognex In-Sight 2D 5705 — dual-mode 2D / structured-light.

6.4 Time-of-Flight, continuous-wave indirect (iToF)

• Microsoft Azure Kinect DK (2019) — modulated-CW ToF + RGB + 7-mic array + IMU; the platform that succeeded Kinect v2 for research robotics until its 2023 discontinuation.
• pmd Pico Monstar / Pico Zense — small-format ToF modules.
• Lucid Helios2 ToF — industrial ToF.
• Vzense DCAM-510 / DCAM-560 — Chinese industrial ToF.
• Sony DepthSense IMX556 — back-illuminated ToF sensor used in many of the above.

iToF measures depth by demodulating the phase of a continuously modulated illumination at typically 20–100 MHz.

6.5 Direct-ToF (single-photon SPAD)

• Sony IMX590 — direct-ToF SPAD array used in the iPhone Pro LiDAR scanner (2020+) and iPad Pro 2020.
• Voxon Photonics, Ouster IDR — SPAD-array dToF for short-to-mid range.

dToF measures depth by directly timing the arrival of single photons. Higher accuracy than iToF, immune to multi-path mixing, but lower lateral resolution at comparable cost.

6.6 Plenoptic / light-field

• Raytrix R-series — micro-lens-array on a single sensor recovers full 4D light field; used for legacy industrial inspection where depth from a single shot from one optical axis is required.
• Lytro — consumer plenoptic camera, discontinued.

Plenoptic depth is single-shot but has poor far-field resolution and very low angular bandwidth — niche.

7. RGB cameras for robotic vision

7.1 Industrial machine-vision (global-shutter, GenICam)

• Basler ace (a2A, dart) — workhorse GigE / USB3 cameras with Sony Pregius / Pregius S sensors.
• Allied Vision Mako / Alvium / Manta — comparable industrial line; Alvium is the embedded-MIPI variant for Jetson and SoMs.
• FLIR Blackfly S / Oryx — Sony Pregius global-shutter; Oryx is the high-bandwidth 10GigE variant.
• JAI GO-X / SP-12000 — multi-tap industrial line-scan and area-scan.
• Imperx Cheetah — high-resolution global-shutter.
• IDS uEye Warp10 — 10 GigE industrial.

Global shutter is mandatory for fast-moving robotic perception (rolling-shutter wobble destroys VIO and photogrammetry).

7.2 Embedded system-on-module camera

• Arducam UC-690 / V-series — MIPI-CSI modules for Jetson, Pi, RB5.
• e-Con Systems See3CAM-CU135M — USB3 industrial-embedded.
• FLIR Lepton 3.5 module — thermal module integration (see §11).

7.3 Automotive-grade RGB (AEC-Q100)

• Sony IMX490 / IMX390 / IMX728 — automotive HDR with LED-flicker mitigation, AEC-Q100 Grade 2.
• OnSemi AR0231-AT — 2.3 MP automotive with HDR, dominant L2 ADAS camera 2018–2023.
• OmniVision OX08B40 / OX03C10 — 8 MP automotive front-camera sensors used in many Chinese OEM ADAS stacks.

AEC-Q100 rating covers thermal cycling, vibration, humidity, and operating-temperature qualification required for under-the-hood and forward-camera placement.

7.4 Rolling-shutter consumer

• Sony IMX477 — Raspberry Pi HQ Camera (12 MP, M12 mount); the hobby reference.
• Sony IMX585 / IMX678 — Starvis II 4K low-light sensors used in security cameras and some mobile-robot vision.
• OmniVision OV5640 — 5 MP cheap MIPI-CSI module on tens of dev boards.

7.5 Smartphone-flagship sensors (occasionally bin-picked for robotics)

• Sony IMX989 — 1-inch type sensor in Xiaomi 14 Pro and Xperia Pro-I; computational-photography-grade.
• Samsung GN3 — Galaxy S24 Ultra primary.
• Sony IMX700 — Huawei P50 / Mate 60 50 MP primary.

7.6 Lens mounts

• C / CS mount — industrial standard, 1-inch threaded, back-flange 17.526 mm (C) / 12.526 mm (CS).
• M12 (S-mount) — board-level machine vision; the standard for embedded SoM cameras.
• Sony E-mount, L-mount, Canon EF-S — interchangeable-lens hybrid systems used when shallow depth-of-field or large-aperture telephoto is required (rare in robotics).
• M42 / T-mount — legacy threaded mounts still common in microscope and scientific imaging.

8. Event / DVS cameras

• Prophesee Gen4 — Sony IMX636 1280 × 720 event sensor, monochrome change-events; same silicon now shipping in the consumer Sony α9 III (2024) for global-shutter still-imaging. Microsecond latency per event.
• iniVation DAVIS346 — 346 × 260 combined active-pixel APS (RGB-like grayscale frames) + event output, useful for hybrid algorithms.
• Prophesee EVK4 HD — development kit around the IMX636.

Key properties:

• Microsecond per-event latency vs frame-rate-limited conventional cameras.
• > 120 dB HDR because each pixel adapts independently — sun-into-shadow transitions don’t saturate or black-crush.
• Sparse output — only changed pixels report; static scenes produce zero data.
• Spike-CNN or async-CNN processing — frame-based DNNs apply only after event accumulation; native event processing requires bespoke models.

Use cases: high-speed manipulation, particle tracking, optical-flow estimation in dim or HDR conditions, low-power always-on sensing.

9. Radar (mm-wave FMCW)

Radar’s robotics-relevant advantages: penetrates rain / fog / dust, operates in total darkness, and directly returns Doppler-velocity per detection.

9.1 Automotive long- and mid-range

• Continental ARS-548 — 77 GHz long-range, 4D (range / Doppler / azimuth / elevation), L2+ ADAS reference.
• Continental ARS-540 — preceding 4D radar generation, widely shipping.
• Bosch LRR / SRR families — long- and short-range radar across the VW / BMW / Stellantis lineups.
• Smartmicro DRVEGRD — high-resolution 77 GHz automotive.
• Aptiv Radar Mid-Range, Veoneer / Magna — Tier-1 supplier portfolios.

Cascaded-MIMO arrays at 77 GHz are the auto-industry’s path to high-angular-resolution 4D radar that can substitute for some LiDAR functions.

9.2 Robotics 24 GHz

• Acconeer A111 / A121 — ~$5 chip-scale pulsed-coherent radar for proximity, gesture, presence on mobile robots.
• TI IWR1843 — 24 GHz dev kit for short-range robotics.

9.3 Robotics 60 GHz

• TI IWR6843AOP — antenna-on-package, 4 × 4 MIMO, ~10 m range, popular for indoor mobile robots and presence sensing.
• Infineon BGT60TR13C — used in Google Soli (Pixel 4 motion-sense) and similar gesture / micro-motion applications.

9.4 Robotics 77 GHz (auto silicon repurposed)

• TI AWR1843 / AWR2944 — 77 GHz MMIC + DSP; common in mobile robotics that need auto-grade range.
• NXP TEF82xx — 77 GHz transceiver family.
• Imerys IMG2244 — 77 GHz MMIC.
• Smartmicro UMRR-96, DRVEGRD — packaged 77 GHz sensors for ITS and AGV.

10. Ultrasonic (40–180 kHz)

• HC-SR04 — $2 hobby module, 2–400 cm; the educational reference.
• MaxBotix HRLV-MaxSonar, I2CXL-MaxSonar — narrow-beam outdoor weather-resistant.
• MicroSonic LCS — industrial ultrasonic.
• Pepperl+Fuchs UC-series — industrial automation.
• Banner U-GAGE Q45U — industrial Q-package.

Automotive ultrasonic for park-assist and ultra-short-range obstacle detection:

• Bosch USS-6 — 12-sensor automotive ultrasonic, the de-facto OEM solution since the early 2010s.

Ultrasonic ToF is ideal at <2 m where cost and reliability through transparent / dark surfaces matter more than angular resolution.

11. Thermal IR (LWIR, 8–14 µm)

• FLIR Boson 320 / 640 — uncooled microbolometer, used in handheld and integrated systems.
• FLIR Lepton 3.5 — 160 × 120 micro-module, sub-2 g, integrates into smartphones and small robots.
• Teledyne DALSA Calibir — radiometric LWIR.
• Workswell — radiometric thermography modules.
• Optris — industrial process LWIR.

Applications: fire detection, electrical-panel inspection, building thermography, search-and-rescue, livestock health, and ADAS night-vision (Veoneer / FLIR auto-grade).

12. Multi-modal cameras and sensor-fusion modules

• Luxonis OAK-D Pro / OAK-D-S2 — RGB + active stereo + on-device Intel Movidius Myriad-X neural inference; runs YOLOv8 / MobileNet on-device.
• Stereolabs ZED 2i — RGB stereo + integrated 9-DoF IMU + barometer; SDK provides ROS 2 wrappers and visual-inertial odometry out of the box.
• Intel RealSense L515 — solid-state LiDAR + RGB combo, discontinued 2022 but still widely deployed.

These integrated modules deliver “depth + RGB + (optional) IMU + on-device inference” in a single USB-C package, lowering the integration burden for academic and small-team robotics.

13. Selection heuristics by application

• Autonomous robotaxi (Waymo / Cruise / Motional class) — Velodyne Alpha Prime or Ouster OS-1 + multi-camera 360° + Continental ARS-548 radar + GNSS-INS (Applanix POS-LV class).
• Auto L2–L3 ADAS — Mobileye EyeQ camera SoC + ARS-548 radar + Innoviz Two LiDAR; Tesla Vision skips LiDAR/radar.
• Warehouse AGV / AMR — 2D LiDAR (Sick microScan3 for safety + Hokuyo UST-10LX for navigation) + wheel odometry + ceiling camera.
• Mobile manipulator pick-and-place — depth camera (RealSense D455 or Zivid 2 high-res) + RGB; force/torque on wrist (see sensor-families).
• Drone localization (sub-250 g) — IMU + GNSS-RTK + downward optical-flow + downward ToF (PMW3901 + VL53L1X).
• Quadruped Spot / Anymal / Unitree class — RealSense D435 / D455 × 4 (front, sides, rear) + IMU + joint encoders + (optional) Livox Mid-360 for outdoor terrain.
• Surgical robot (da Vinci Xi class) — endoscopic stereo + tool-tip force.
• Bin-picking — Photoneo MotionCam structured-light or Zivid 2 high-res; RGB + IR.
• Ultrafast tracking / particle imaging — Prophesee Gen4 event camera + custom temporal-conv network.
• Thermal building / electrical inspection — FLIR Lepton 3.5 or Boson 640.
• UAV mapping / inspection — Livox Mid-360 or DJI Zenmuse L2 + RGB downward.
• Agricultural row-crop — multispectral (MicaSense RedEdge-MX, Parrot Sequoia) or RGB + RTK GNSS for centimeter swath georeferencing.

14. Cross-references

• sensors-perception — Tier-2 overview of sensing for autonomy.
• sensor-families — sibling family index (IMU, encoder, force-torque, tactile + this note’s exteroceptive families).
• slam — algorithms that consume the LiDAR / depth / RGB outputs.
• computer-vision-robotics — RGB and depth processing pipelines.
• semiconductor-materials — HgCdTe (LWIR detectors), InGaAs (1550 nm LiDAR photodiodes), GaAs APDs.
• photonics — silicon photonics underpinning OPA and FMCW LiDAR.

15. Citations

• Velodyne VLP-16, VLP-32C, HDL-64E, Alpha Prime product datasheets.
• Ouster OS-0, OS-1, OS-2 datasheets and revision 7 firmware notes.
• Innoviz One / Two technology white papers; BMW iX series-prod press release 2022.
• Aeva Aeries II / Aeries III FMCW datasheets; Daimler Truck partnership announcement.
• Luminar Iris / Halo datasheets; Volvo EX90 launch material.
• Sony semiconductor datasheets: IMX636 (Prophesee Gen4), IMX556 (DepthSense), IMX989 (1-inch), IMX490 / IMX390 / IMX728 (auto), IMX590 (dToF SPAD).
• Texas Instruments mm-wave radar app reports: IWR1843, AWR2944, IWR6843AOP.
• Photoneo PhoXi M and MotionCam technical specifications.
• Zivid 2+ technical specifications.
• Prophesee Gen4 announcement (Sony IMX636, 2020); Sony α9 III press release (2024).
• SAE J3016 driving-automation level definitions (revision 2021).