While the AI boom has made robots significantly more capable, the accompanying safety infrastructure has struggled to keep pace. Traditional 2D laser scanners, which are widely used to define safety perimeters for most mobile robotic systems, are unable to detect people and obstacles above or below a single plane.
Designed for autonomous mobile robots and industrial automation, ADAR One delivers 180°×180° 3D spatial awareness, detecting people and obstacles at all heights, eliminating the limitations and blind spots that define today's 2D safety systems. Easy integration with a tiny footprint enables ADAR (acoustic detection and ranging) technology to be embedded flush into virtually any robot form factor, including humanoids.
ADAR One is already in series production and shipping on deployed industrial robots. Since the introduction of the beta version of ADAR one year ago, more than 80 global robotics companies have rigorously evaluated ADAR through Sonair's test program within. For many, safety certification is the moment they have been waiting for.
The certification
ADAR One was assessed as a human protection sensor according to the very demanding IEC 61496 standard for electrosensitive protection devices. In addition, the product meets two foundational standards: IEC 61508, the functional safety standard for electronic safety systems in high-risk industrial environments, and ISO 13849, the universal standard for safety-related parts of control systems.
The result: ADAR is rated SIL 2, (Safety Integrity Level 2) and PL d (Performance Level d) with a probability of dangerous failure (PFH) below 1.5 x 10⁻7 per hour.
ADAR has received an EC type-examination certificate from exida, a notified body under the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. In addition to the above-mentioned standards, exida has assessed ADAR’s conformity to the essential health and safety requirements from the European machine directive.
Furthermore, ADAR is the first safety-certified embedded system to be built in Rust, a programming language especially designed for performance, safety, and reliability.
Availability
ADAR One, the safety-certified variant designed for autonomous robots and machine safety applications requiring SIL 2, PL d compliance, is available now. The ADAR test kit is available for engineers evaluating 3D ultrasonic sensing for new or existing safety use cases.
