Lidar expert Hesai Technology is working with Westwell to accelerate global expansion in autonomous driving for logistics.

The two Chinese companies aim to provide lidar in applications including autonomous driving, industrial robots, heavy machinery and smart cities.

Westwell’s autonomous driving technology will be equipped with Hesai’s lidar products and serve more than 200 corporate clients across 20 countries. The collaboration should also bring higher productivity to the supply chain, enhancing efficiency and quality while reducing carbon emissions.

Hesai’s lidars are already integrated into several of Westwell’s products, including its energy-efficient autonomous driving Q-Trucks and Q-Tractors. Westwell has the largest fleet of Q-Trucks at Felixstowe Port in the UK and has deployed Q-Tractors to support Hong Kong’s independent air cargo operator, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (www.hactl.com). The Q-Trucks are also used in manufacturing plants to improve transport efficiency and reduce carbon.

Westwell’s R&D team uses a multi-sensor approach, equipping multiple Hesai’s XT32 and AT128 lidars for each of their vehicles, ensuring precise operations across various scenarios. The autonomous driving Q-Trucks and E-Trucks use Hesai’s XT32 mid-range lidar, with 5mm range precision. The lidar provides point clouds and optical systems, enabling operable data and accurate vehicle alignment and interactions.

Additionally, sensors in port scenarios are susceptible to frequent vibrations, salt corrosion and frequent stops. The XT and AT series’ transceiver modules are based on Hesai’s proprietary technology, reducing failure rates and maintenance costs.

Beyond logistics, lidar empowers industrial robotics by providing precise distance, speed and imaging data, facilitating accurate positioning, obstacle avoidance and navigation in complex environments. The lidars are widely used in autonomous delivery robots, forklifts and lawnmowers.

Westwell (en.westwell-lab.com) has partnered with Hesai (www.hesaitech.com) on lidar since 2018. Through this latest partnership, they plan to enhance product performance, providing efficient and reliable intelligence to customers worldwide.