Bench Talk

(Source: Nejron Photo/stock.adobe.com; generated with AI)

A camouflaged coin stuck to a distant wall or a self-driving vehicle entering a foggy tunnel may seem like unremarkable scenarios to the average person. For engineers, however, these scenarios represent two challenges when building autonomous systems: seeing and knowing where you are when the conditions are working against it. Cameras can fail. A global positioning system (GPS) can drop out. Radar can miss details.

Researchers are now pushing the boundaries of what is possible with two new optical technologies that can help overcome some limitations in today’s autonomous systems: single-photon light direction and ranging (lidar) and optical gyroscopes built on chips. In this blog, we explore the research of two different engineering teams that reveal just where the industry can go with these two essential tools.

These technologies do not compete with one another, but rather, they complement each other in the industry by creating more resilient, precise, and weatherproof sensing stacks for the next generation of robotics, autonomous vehicles, and drones.

Seeing What Radar Cannot

Imagine spotting a camouflaged object the size of a coin hundreds of meters away, even through smoke. That is the kind of precision derived from a new class of lidar systems built around single-photon detection.

The technology operates at a wavelength of 1550nm, which is invisible to the human eye and can safely transmit significant optical power levels without harming the eye.^[1] This new lidar technology employs superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs), which can detect individual photons with a timing accuracy of about 12 picoseconds.

Aongus McCarthy and his team at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, are leading this effort in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Together, they built a single-photon lidar system capable of detecting depth differences as small as one millimeter, even at long distances (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Scans of a life-sized polystyrene head and research co-author Gregor Taylor from a distance of 325m. (Source: Heriot-Watt University)

On paper, the technology is impressive, but in real-world testing, its performance really sets it apart. The lidar system can detect the depth of surfaces to just one millimeter, even at hundreds of meters away. This kind of resolution made it possible to spot the camouflaged coin placed flat against a distant wall, an object that would be invisible to radar or cameras.

McCarthy explained, “So, if I took a picture with a digital camera and a telephoto lens or a telescope, say, it would be extremely unlikely that you would [see the coin], even if the ambient lighting was such that it happened to cast a definite shadow. And radar wouldn't see it because it doesn't have as high a depth and spatial resolution capability as the lidar system. Whereas, the 3D image from our lidar system would enable us to say, ‘Yeah, there’s something two millimeters thick, stuck on that wall.’”

While the team initially struggled with earlier detectors that required long acquisition times, this latest generation makes the system not only more resistant to solar background noise but also eye-safe and highly effective at long range.

“Once we plugged in the new detector and saw the first results, it was a moment of relief and amazement,” McCarthy said. “We could distinguish millimeter-scale features at hundreds of meters away, even in complex scenes. That was a first for us.” The breakthroughs of this single-photon lidar technology set the stage for future advances in monitoring and autonomous systems, particularly for those in remote or harsh environments.

Knowing Where You Are When GPS Fails

Meanwhile, in Canada, physicist Kazem Zandi, founder and CEO of OSCPS Motion Sensing Inc., also known as OSCP, is tackling a different autonomy challenge: how to maintain accurate positioning when GPS fails.

With decades of experience in photonics and defense research, Zandi developed a chip-scale optical gyroscope using photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology (Figure 2). The system is based on the Sagnac effect, where laser light travels in opposite directions through a loop and experiences phase shifts during rotation. This principle allows for extremely precise inertial measurements without any moving parts.

Figure 2: The chip-scale optical gyroscope developed by Kazem Zandi and the OSCP team. (Source: OSCPS Motion Sensing Inc.)

Traditional optical gyroscopes have long been trusted in aerospace and defense applications because of their precision, but their bulky size and high cost have limited broader adoption. OSCP’s innovation shrinks this precision into a 2×2cm chip.^[2] At this compact size, it delivers tactical-grade performance suitable for autonomous vehicles, drones, industrial robots, and even train navigation systems. Moreover, this solution is 20 times cheaper, 10 times more power-efficient, and up to 25 times smaller by volume than conventional systems.

Zandi explained, “What we have today, in terms of cost, makes sense to be used in large autonomous vehicles like agriculture machinery, like John Deere’s autonomous agriculture vehicles, for example, or big drones or trains.” He continued, “The current version of the chip-scale gyroscope is just the beginning and [is] on the path toward broader adoption.”

“But if you want to go into, let's say, small drones, small robots, or autonomous cars, then we need to get the cost down and further miniaturize it. Make it smaller and cheaper,” Zandi added.

Unlike lidar, which maps the environment, Zandi’s optical gyroscope provides continuous inertial navigation, which is critical for maintaining location and orientation when external signals (like GPS) are unavailable or disrupted. This feature makes it an important partner in poor weather or GPS-denied environments like tunnels, garages, or canyons. Unlike GPS or some radio-based positioning systems, inertial sensors like optical gyroscopes cannot be spoofed or jammed, making them ideal for applications where GPS is unreliable, such as defense, aerospace, or autonomous vehicles operating in isolated areas.

Engineers working on autonomous systems must navigate trade-offs, such as performance, size, power consumption, safety, and reliability, when selecting and integrating sensing technologies. Every sensor adds complexity to the system, and every subsystem must operate in real-world conditions beyond the lab. A lidar system that works at long range but needs a lot of cooling and power may be impractical. A low-cost gyroscope that drifts over time may fail without GPS correction. That’s why the next generation of sensing needs more than just performance—it needs scalability, integration, and balance.

A Stronger Sensing Stack

McCarthy’s and Zandi’s technologies have the potential to solve complementary problems. The single-photon lidar system delivers high-resolution, millimeter-accurate 3D mapping, even through smoke and cluttered environments, while the chip-scale optical gyroscope provides constant orientation and localization without relying on GPS. One sees the world in astonishing detail; the other always knows where it is.

The future of autonomous systems will be built on the strength of sensing technologies like these. While McCarthy’s work in single-photon lidar expands on what autonomous systems can perceive, Zandi and his team’s chip-scale optical gyroscope addresses the need for precise positioning in challenging settings. Each technology tackles a different part of the puzzle.

The real engineering challenge involves deciding which technologies can be ruggedized, miniaturized, and scaled for real-world applications. Understanding how and when to adopt innovations like these requires engineers to look past lab specs to system-level trade-offs.

Engineers should pay attention to how these innovations scale over time. Even though the lidar system is not yet compact, it has shown millimeter-scale depth resolution at long ranges and future work aims to drive imaging distances further and explore obscure conditions like fog. With continued improvements in computational analysis and optical hardware, single-photon lidar could be more practical for future field use. The on-chip optical gyroscope is moving toward application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) integration, paving the way for low-cost inertial navigation in compact systems.

Although the industry can’t expect full autonomy from a single breakthrough, it will come from advancing the right tools for the job via technologies that see clearly, move steadily, and stay oriented no matter the conditions.

Sources

[1] https://opg.optica.org/optica/fulltext.cfm?uri=optica-12-2-168&id=567815

[2] https://www.oscp.com/