Velodyne Lidar, Inc. announced a multi-year agreement to provide its lidar sensors to GreenValley International for handheld, mobile and unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) 3D mapping solutions, including in GPS-denied environments. Velodyne is already shipping sensors to GreenValley as part of this agreement. GreenValley uses Velodyne's Puck lidar sensors to provide perception and navigation capabilities that enable their systems to utilize SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) in their mobile mapping solutions.

The ability to scan without GPS by using lidar allows foresters, archaeologists, civil engineers and surveyors to build robust datasets without preparations ahead of time or complex post-processing software. Velodyne's power-efficient, versatile sensors allow GreenValley to incorporate their technology into a variety of form factors, from backpacks to drones/UAVs to handheld mobile devices that can be used in a wide range of indoor and outdoor environments, regardless of temperature, lighting or precipitation.