FAQs

The ECHO ONE can be configured to detect objects of different sizes. The smallest object that can be detected at a range of 1 meter is a small USB stick approximately 40x20x5 mm. Other objects that can be detected are power cables, cable ducts and even the tips of forklift forks.

The sensor is capable of detecting up to 40 objects per scan.

Yes. You can read the raw point cloud data from the ECHO ONE® sensor using the Toposens Sensor Library (available on our website) and you can also receive the processed point cloud data from the Toposens Processing Unit (TPU). The TPU additionally provides signal flags to indicate violations of the warning and stopping zones.

Once you have integrated the Toposens 3D Collision Avoidance System into your mobile robot and configured it, the TPU will output zone violation signals (depending on which zone is violated),  to either slow down (due to violation of warning zone) or completely stop (due to violation of stopping zone) your mobile robot before a collision happens.

Because our technology works with sound waves, the point cloud is sparser than the one obtained from a LiDAR. You can see typical ECHO ONE® sensor point clouds in this video.

The Doppler effect caused by motion only becomes relevant for very high speeds and in practical cases does not affect the performance of the ECHO ONE® . The recommended maximum AGV speed is about 5.7 km/h (1.6 m/s). At relative speeds higher than 15 km/h (4.2 m/s) the data becomes unreliable and at higher speeds, the sound of wind may cause significant noise in the point cloud.

Yes, it does have a self-diagnose mechanism. If the interference becomes strong enough to prevent the sensor from working reliably, a signal flag will be displayed in the GUI to inform you.

The ECHO ONE® has an operating range of up to 3 m with a Field-of-View of up to +- 80° in ultrashort range (from 10 cm to 100 cm) and +-55° from 1 m up to 3 m, depending on parameter setting, and a typical resolution of +-2.5 cm.

Yes, you can communicate directly with the sensor and receive the unfiltered point cloud. We recommend that you communicate with the TPU so that you can use the filters to get a higher-quality point cloud and to get information about zone violations.

If a source of noise is very intense and has frequencies around 40 KHz., it may jam the ECHO ONE® signals. Tools which typically emit ultrasound in the same frequency range as the ECHO ONE® are air pressure pistols, welding tools and plasma cutters. If you want to use the ECHO ONE® in environments where you operate these tools, please let us know so we can optimise the sensor accordingly.

The ECHO ONE® sensors have a special operating mode called Medium Monitoring Mode (MMM), allowing them to detect and synchronise with one other, thus avoiding interferences.

Currently you can connect one ECHO ONE® sensor per TPU. We will soon provide a firmware update to our customers to allow connecting several sensors to one single TPU.

Each point in the point cloud is characterized by five values: three coordinates in space (X, Y, Z), a confidence value (indicating how close the received shape of the echo is to the expected signal shape), and an intensity value (intensity of the echo received).

Our system provides approximately 20 frames (point clouds) per second.

We provide the point cloud directly from the sensor via CAN interface and the filtered point cloud from the TPU via UDP/Ethernet. Additionally, the TPU also provides digital output pins to indicate configured warning and stopping zones have been violated by any object.