SICK Inc., is excited to announce a challenge for universities across the nation to support innovation and student achievement in automation and technology. Twenty teams will be selected to participate in the challenge and the chosen teams will be supplied with a SICK 270° lidar (TiM) and accessories, as well as a license to AppSpace, an eco-system where an individualized SensorApp can be developed for the TiM-P LiDAR. The teams will be challenged to solve a problem, create a solution and bring a new application that utilizes the SICK scanner in any industry.

From advanced manufacturing to automated vehicles and self-driving cars, engineers are using LiDAR to change the world as we know it. As the usability of lidar has increased while the price has decreased, lidar is becoming ever more instrumental in ensuring the quality and efficiency of packaging processes at the world’s biggest companies. The TiM-P is a fully programmable 2D LiDAR sensor for various industrial tasks both in- and outdoors.

At a Glance

• Wide working range: 0.05 m up to maximum 25 m at 270° aperture angle
• Low power consumption (typically: 4 W) o High flexibility for a wide range of applications
• “Welcome app” as a starting point for programming your own apps
• Simple scripting with Lua and code examples in GitLab and GitHub

AppSpace is an eco-system where individualized SensorApps for certain sensors are developed. These SensorApps are created on the basis of our intelligent software tools and algorithms. Existing solutions for industrialized LiDAR products (like the TiM) can be adapted to individual applications, or completely new SensorApps can be created in line with specific requirements.

At a Glance

• Enables simple edge computing
• Quick and efficient development of tailor-made SensorApps specially tuned to your requirements
• A high degree of flexibility due to a high degree of freedom in the development of SensorApps
• Reduced amount of development work required thanks to option of reusing SensorApps on various programmable devices

The 3 winning teams will win a cash award of 

The first place team, Team 2 from Texas A&M University (TAMU), created a solution for a common problem in the construction industry. Tool inaccessibility and misplacement accounts for 18% of a construction worker’s work day, resulting in wasted time traveling between tool storage and work areas or tools be lost or left behind. The AutoTool provides workers an automated robotic tool carrier to carry tools, automatically follow a worker, and keep inventory of tools.

The second place team, Team 3 from TAMU, focused on providing support for large acreage industrial farms with crop growth modeling and tracking. The TYTO Farm Survey System uses SICK LiDAR on a drone to survey acres of farmland and monitor the growth of crops. There are almost 900 million acres of farmland in America alone and farmers currently have no available solutions for crop growth monitoring.

The third place team from University of Wisconsin – Madison and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, invented a LiDAR-based tunnel inspection automation system. With this tool, the inspection of the functionality and safety of tunnels and pipelines can be more easily monitored with less dependence on human labor in hazardous environments.