Sensing

Laser Sensors - Automotive Speed Over Ground Sensing

There is a growing trend towards car safety systems which guarantee stability of the car in critical driving situations (e.g. ABS, ESP). The holy grail of control over car dynamics is the measurement of the true speed of the car with respect to the road. Philips Photonics has achieved a breakthrough: it has developed a speed over ground sensor. The sensor can measure true forward, lateral and vertical speeds of a car, even when the car skids or slips. Knowledge of true car speed would enable improvements in several important chassis- and safety-related functions like brake distance reduction, improved slip control, side wind cor­rection, tire pressure monitoring and parking assistance.

Key product features:

• Accurate 3D speed measurement up to 360km/hr
• Direction detection per axis
• Works on virtually all surfaces including snow and water
• Working range of 20 - 40 cm
• Accuracy up to 0.1%
• High speed, low latency interface
• RoHS compliant

Main application domains are:

• Automotive test equip­ment
• Automotive racing
• Indus­trial sen­sors
• Sensors for pas­senger cars