The year 2025 marks a pivotal moment in robotics. Domestically produced high-end smart lawn mowers are spearheading a global industry upgrade, while competition in the Autonomous Guided Vehicle (AGV) sector intensifies. As the "environmental perception hub" for robots, LiDAR performance directly influences the operational efficiency and reliability of equipment in critical applications like lawn mowing, outdoor cleaning, and automated material handling. Consequently, cost control for mid-stream components has emerged as a key competitive differentiator.
This analysis delves into three prominent LiDAR products shaping robot navigation and obstacle avoidance: the Livox Mid-360, the Hesai JT16, and the RoboSense E1R.
01. Livox Mid-360: Unlocking Detail with Non-Repetitive Scanning
The Livox Mid-360 distinguishes itself with its innovative non-repetitive scanning technology. Unlike traditional LiDARs that utilize repetitive scanning patterns, often resulting in "striped gaps" within point cloud data, the Mid-360's unique approach effectively mitigates this issue. This technology significantly enhances spatial resolution as integration time increases, providing richer environmental data. Coupled with a 40-meter range and a expansive 360° × 59° Field of View (FOV), it offers extensive detection coverage and area analysis.
Scenario Adaptability: Precision Perception Across Diverse Environments
For demanding applications like smart lawn mowing, the Livox Mid-360's extended range and broad FOV efficiently cover vast areas, boosting mapping efficiency. Its high-density point cloud excels at accurately identifying small obstacles such as rocks, low-lying shrubs, toys, or small animals, providing robust environmental perception for mowing equipment.
In complex indoor environments, such as shopping malls with their challenging surfaces—glass, tiles, metal—and dynamic pedestrian traffic, sensor performance is paramount. Official test footage demonstrates the Mid-360's capability to detect intricate features in these complex scenes. Its anti-sunlight interference function further ensures reliable performance for both indoor and outdoor modeling tasks.
Within unmanned handling scenarios, the Livox Mid-360 delivers an impressive point cloud density of 200,000 points per second. Combined with its non-repetitive scanning, it meticulously captures the contours of pallets, enabling AGVs to accurately identify both standard and irregularly shaped pallets. This provides highly robust data for precise picking and placing operations, theoretically reducing collision risks significantly.
Launched in 2023, the Mid-360 maintains strong advantages in core parameters like range and FOV. However, as the LiDAR market intensifies, Livox faces the challenge of balancing performance with cost-effectiveness. The non-repetitive scanning technology also holds considerable potential for algorithm development. With Livox increasingly focusing on drone and robotics applications, further innovations in related scenarios are highly anticipated.
02. Hesai JT16: Compact Design for Agile Robotics
The Hesai JT16 is engineered for miniaturization and low power consumption, making it an ideal choice for compact robotic systems. Weighing a mere 200g, its lightweight design simplifies integration into smaller devices. A 360° × 40° field of view supports safe, omnidirectional operation for robots. Positioned as a cost-effective solution, the JT16 offers a strong performance-to-price ratio for applications sensitive to weight, power, and budget.
Scenario Adaptability: Driving Miniaturization and Seamless Integration
In small-scale applications like robotic lawn mowers, the Hesai JT16's lightweight profile is a significant asset. With a diameter of 55mm, a height of 64mm, and a weight of 200g, it caters to terminal products with stringent weight and volume constraints, such as portable robots and compact service equipment.
For general integration, its small and light form factor facilitates embedding into various systems, contributing to more aesthetically pleasing designs. The efficiency of its 4.3W low power consumption also presents compelling application potential for consumer-grade robots and lightweight industrial equipment.
Historically, Hesai has primarily focused on the automotive-grade market. As a new product released in 2025, the JT16 expands its offerings into miniature 3D LiDAR for robotics. Its 30-meter range at 10% reflectivity is sufficient for most small robot scenarios. However, with a point cloud density of 48,000 points per second, which is lower than the other two LiDARs in this comparison, the JT16 may require more advanced algorithms and robust data processing to ensure stable navigation and obstacle avoidance in highly complex or open environments.
03. RoboSense E1R: Automotive-Grade Solid-State LiDAR for Extreme Environments
The RoboSense E1R stands as a groundbreaking next-gen solid-state LiDAR, setting new benchmarks for real-time 3D vision in robotics and beyond. Engineered to automotive-grade standards, it boasts an impressive operating temperature range from -40°C to +85°C and is robust against 50G vibrations, ensuring stable operation in the most extreme conditions. Its purely solid-state architecture, completely devoid of moving parts, provides unparalleled resilience to continuous high-frequency vibrations and demanding industrial robotics scenarios.
Innovating with Digital SPAD-SoC Technology:
At the heart of the E1R's superior performance is RoboSense’s self-developed SPAD-SoC digital technology and 2D VCSEL chips. This represents the world's first successful mass production of such a combination, pioneering a new era for solid-state LiDAR. This fully digital signal processing and transmission architecture meticulously preserves lossless echo data, delivering remarkably crisp and high-fidelity point cloud outputs essential for advanced perception tasks. Its chip-based solid-state design not only boosts reliability but also enables cleaner, more consistent data streams.
Unmatched Perception & Integration:
- Ultra-Wide Field of View (FOV): With an expansive 120° (H) × 90° (V) FOV, the E1R provides broad-area coverage. Its 0.625° angular resolution (H/V) ensures fine-grained object detection, crucial for identifying even small obstacles. The remarkable vertical 90° FOV (45° up and 45° down) allows for effective coverage of near-ground blind spots when horizontally mounted, significantly reducing collision risks.
- Precision & Range: The E1R achieves an impressive ±3 cm accuracy for consistent near-field and far-field sensing. It offers a reliable 30-meter detection range at 10% reflectivity, with a maximum range of 75 meters. This capability surpasses conventional depth cameras by over 7x, enabling early recognition of distant objects. Its minimal blind zone of less than 0.1m ensures close-range precision.
- High-Density Point Cloud: Generating up to 260,000 points per second (single return) or 520,000 pts/s (dual return) with its 144 neatly structured laser channels, the E1R delivers ultra-detailed 3D perception. This high-density output is critical for efficient 3D mapping and accurate environmental reconstruction across diverse scenarios.
Scenario Adaptability: Dominating Harsh & Specialized Environments
The RoboSense E1R is meticulously designed for robust performance in challenging conditions:
- Extreme Environments: Its automotive-grade design and wide operating temperature range ensure stable operation in severe cold and high-temperature environments, making it indispensable for outdoor inspection robots, special operations vehicles, and cold chain handling systems that demand high environmental tolerance.
- Infrastructure & Logistics: For road and port modeling scenarios, the E1R offers exceptional modeling efficiency. Its ability to accurately detect dynamic and static small obstacles and perform efficient 3D mapping makes it ideal for warehouse automation, logistics hubs, and smart city monitoring, including traffic flow analysis and public safety applications.
- All-Condition Operation: The E1R performs flawlessly under strong light, complete darkness, and mixed lighting conditions. This reliability empowers robots to navigate with confidence and precision, indoors or outdoors.
Compact, Reliable, and Developer-Friendly:
Measuring just 7×35×75 mm and weighing only 330 ± 20g, the E1R is exceptionally compact. Its flat, flush light-emitting window and standard ¼-inch threaded interface facilitate seamless integration into various robotic platforms and compatibility with standard photographic accessories for rapid prototyping and debugging. With IP67 and IP6K9K protection, it is engineered to withstand harsh weather, dust, and water ingress, ready for rigorous outdoor deployment. It further supports gPTP for time synchronization, crucial for complex multi-sensor systems.
While its 120° horizontal FOV differs from the 360° scanning solutions of some competitors, this design choice is optimized for front-facing or side-facing integration, where an ultra-wide perception cone is paramount. For omnidirectional coverage, multiple E1R units can be deployed, or it can be effectively combined with other sensors, offering flexible solutions tailored to specific application needs.
As a new product for 2025, the RoboSense E1R leverages its automotive-grade reliability and pioneering solid-state Flash LiDAR technology to target the demanding outdoor and specialized robotics markets. RoboSense is well-positioned to replicate its success from the automotive OEM field into the broader robotics sector.
04. Technical Route: Shaping Scenario Adaptation
The Livox Mid-360, with its non-repetitive scanning technology, long range, wide FOV, and high precision, excels in robotic fields demanding superior perception accuracy and coverage, such as smart lawn mowing, outdoor cleaning, and unmanned logistics handling.
The Hesai JT16 strategically targets low-speed robotics scenarios, like lawn mowing, through its lightweight design, low power consumption, and cost-effective hemispherical + circular scanning solution, providing a strong value proposition for price-sensitive customers.
The RoboSense E1R, leveraging its automotive-grade reliability, wide temperature adaptability, and innovative Flash solid-state LiDAR architecture, is poised to dominate outdoor and specialized robotics markets with strict environmental demands. Its robust performance and advanced perception capabilities make it a strong contender for critical applications where reliability and precision are non-negotiable.
In summary, the technical routes and product positioning of these three LiDARs demonstrate distinct scenario adaptation capabilities. The Livox Mid-360, a mature 2023 product, has achieved large-scale validation in areas like robotic lawn mowers and AGVs, earning significant industry recognition. However, the market is dynamic; continuous innovation is paramount. The entry of sophisticated players like Hesai and especially RoboSense, with its E1R setting new standards for solid-state LiDAR, accelerates technological advancements and solution iterations. This pushes LiDAR products towards higher reliability and greater scenario generalization. This is not merely a competition between individual products but an evolutionary leap for the entire field of robotic perception technology, ultimately benefiting the global robotics industry.
References
- https://www.robosense.ai/en/IncrementalComponents/Fairy
- https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/efk-7qGh6g0glTM51sKiEw
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