Velodyne LiDAR and Paracosm Team Up to Capture Environments on a Virtually Unlimited Scale

Paracosm’s PX-80 mobile 3D scanner leverages lightweight and powerful VLP-16 Puck for fast and accurate surveying of indoor and outdoor areas 

San Jose, Calif.– Velodyne LiDAR Inc., the world leader in 3D vision systems for autonomous vehicles, and Paracosm, a division of Occipital, today announced that the two companies have partnered to integrate Velodyne’s VLP-16 Puck LiDAR sensors into Paracosm’s PX-80. The PX-80 is a powerful handheld 3D scanner commonly used for geospatial, construction, and industrial applications to survey a wide array of spaces from large office buildings to thick forests.

Paracosm’s PX-80 uses Velodyne’s VLP-16 Puck and its own proprietary SLAM technology – itself a fusion of LiDAR, color imagery, and IMU data – to produce detailed three-dimensional documentation of complex environments and geometries in minutes. The resulting point clouds come in full color with corresponding spherical imagery that can provide virtual tours along with accurate 3D measurements. With the light and cost effective VLP-16 LiDAR sensor from Velodyne, Paracosm is able to offer a handheld scanner with unprecedented accuracy, range, and detail.

“When we first began our 3D mapping journey, we wanted to be able to capture huge environments as fast as possible, but were limited by the range and accuracy of available sensors,” said Amir Rubin, President of Paracosm. “After searching far and wide for a better solution, we found that the VLP-16 was the best combination of size, accuracy, and functionality to fit our needs,” he added.

“Paracosm has proven its ability to expand the application of LiDAR into handheld use cases, allowing the PX-80 to become one of the most accurate and versatile mobile 3D scanners on the market,” said Mike Jellen, President and Chief Commercial Officer, Velodyne LiDAR. “We are thrilled to partner with Paracosm for their development of the PX-80 and look forward to working with them as they expand their footprint.”

As the VLP-16 is the smallest commercially available sensor in Velodyne’s LiDAR portfolio, it is the easiest to embed in other products. “The performance of the VLP-16 is unrivaled in the marketplace. We remain deeply impressed with the range, acquisition rate, noise levels, and accuracy it provides in such a compact form factor,” said Gannon Wilder, who leads Business Development in the Paracosm division.

Both Velodyne LiDAR and Paracosm will be at CES providing product demonstrations. Velodyne LiDAR will be located at Booth #3525 in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, while Paracosm will be at Booth #21029 in South Hall 1.

About Paracosm
Paracosm, a division of Occipital, Inc., develops mobile LiDAR scanning technology and visualization tools for the documentation of both indoor and outdoor spaces. Paracosm was founded in 2013 in Gainesville, FL, and became a part of Occipital in 2017. To learn more, visit paracosm.io.

About Velodyne LiDAR
Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, Velodyne is a technology company known worldwide for its real-time 3D LiDAR computing and software platforms. The company evolved after founder/inventor David Hall developed the HDL-64 Solid-State Hybrid LiDAR sensor in 2005. Since then, Velodyne LiDAR Inc. emerged as the unmatched market leader of real-time 3D vision systems used in a variety of commercial applications including autonomous vehicles, vehicle safety systems, mobile mapping, aerial mapping, and security. Its products range from the high-performance, surround view Ultra-Puck™ VLP-32, classic HDL-32/64 and cost-effective VLP-16, to the upcoming, hidden Velarray™. Velodyne’s rich suite of perception software and algorithms are the key enablers of its perception systems. Velodyne supports customers from offices in San Jose, Detroit, Frankfurt, and Beijing. For more information, visit http://www.velodynelidar.com.