Optical sensors, spectral detection and LiDAR.
Hesai held the global launch of Kosmo at its Maxwell super factory in Shanghai on October 14, unveiling a 3D world data engine and disclosing that it has entered robotic motion modules and begun commercial deliveries. Li Yifan said that LiDAR units that once sold for more than RMB 300,000 can now be produced for around USD 200, with one unit rolling off the line every five to six seconds.
A team from UCSB and Caltech has published an account in Optics Letters of a chip-scale optical ring laser gyroscope capable of measuring rotations as slow as 37 degrees per hour, approaching Earth's rotation rate of 15 degrees per hour. The device is based on a low-noise Brillouin laser built on a silicon nitride waveguide photonic integrated circuit, can be fabricated with standard CMOS processes, and requires only milliwatt-level optical power. Its sensitivity is nearly 2,000 times better than the team's earlier device.
Why we recommend it: That is nearly a 2,000-fold improvement over the team's earlier silicon nitride Brillouin gyroscope, which measured 72,000 degrees per hour, and indicates how far on-chip optical gyroscopes still are from navigation-grade applications.
A team led by the University of Central Florida (UCF) will receive a five-year, $19.2 million grant from the US Army Research Office to study light propagation and control in complex dynamic environments. The project, led by Guifang Li, will explore weak backscattering coherent measurement, inverse methods, AI analysis and multi-plane light conversion, with the goal of measuring and rapidly correcting optical field distortions when remote sensors or beacons cannot be placed. Potential applications include directed-energy systems, biological tissue imaging, laser medicine, remote sensing and free-space optical communications.
The article analyzes the computing demands of the vision-only and LiDAR fusion approaches in autonomous driving, arguing that compute requirements are not simply determined by the number of sensors, but by how the perception scheme processes data and its algorithm architecture.
Wuhan Yuanxi Photonics has closed an angel funding round worth tens of millions of yuan, with investors including CASSTAR and Hongshan Capital. Founded in late 2025, the company will focus on metasurface optical chip R&D and product introduction, targeting two major markets: intelligent 3D sensing and data center optical interconnects.
Laser Focus World reports that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Francis Halzen for his work on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, which uses light detectors in the ice to capture neutrino signals.
A Laser Focus World article notes that an optical design can meet its specifications yet still fail at the system level, for example when the output of an imaging instrument is interpreted by algorithms rather than the human eye; it advocates using virtual prototyping to evaluate system performance before building hardware.
Data from NE Times show that 525,500 LiDAR units were installed in passenger vehicles in China in August 2026. Hesai installed 182,436 units, just 65 fewer than Huawei, with the two companies together accounting for 69.4%. The growth logic is extending beyond simply adding vehicle models to multiple LiDARs per vehicle, robotic perception and 3D spatial mapping.
Why we recommend it: The original article provides monthly installation and market share data, helping to gauge the automotive LiDAR market landscape
CCTV host Dong Qian interviews Xia Haiyun, chairman of Guangzai Technology, a company incubated by the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, on the program Trust in China, discussing the path of independent innovation in domestic LiDAR.
Hesai, Seyond and RoboSense released their financial reports in succession in August. Comparing the three, the article notes that as production vehicle models, robotics and embodied AI generate real demand, the growth logic of leading LiDAR companies is beginning to diverge.
RoboSense plans to sell its complete embodied-robot business for RMB 59.878 million and focus on supplying key components to robot makers; Seyond has signed a design win with Chuneng Auto for its forward-facing main LiDAR; Hesai has also announced a new move in spatial intelligence.
The Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics and its incubated companies will exhibit at CIOE 2026 from September 9 to 11.
Ozone lidar uses the differential absorption principle for atmospheric monitoring. All-solid-state units are easy to maintain and integrate, and are expected to become mainstream.
In the first half of 2026, RoboSense shipped 719,200 units, up 169.6% year on year, while Seyond shipped 450,900 units, up 364.8%. The article compares the scale, profitability and second growth curves of the three companies.
ams OSRAM reported first-half revenue of EUR 1.601 billion, flat year on year, with adjusted EBITDA of EUR 267 million and a strategic focus on digital photonics.
ETH researchers are using optical fiber sensing to detect crevasses in the Gorner Glacier in the Alps.
The Leapmotor A05 launched on August 11, bringing LiDAR to vehicles in the RMB 80,000 price range.
LiDAR installations totaled 1.595 million units in 2024 and 3.316 million in 2025; 2.282 million units were installed in the first half of 2026, with Huawei's 896-beam becoming the new benchmark.
Ultra-narrow linewidth lasers are used in coherent optical communications and other fields, and domestic production efforts continue to gain momentum.
Hesai reported net revenue of RMB 3.028 billion in 2025. The article discusses its valuation.