Yiou New Manufacturing News on November 11, recently, Shenzhen Camsense Technology Co., Ltd. (English: Camsense, hereinafter referred to as Camsense) announced the completion of the A+ round of financing of more than 25 million yuan, led by well-known domestic investment institutions Fengyang Capital and Chenhui Venture Capital, Nanling Fund and old shareholder Oriental Fuhai followed.

Yiou New Manufacturing first announced on November 11, recently, Shenzhen Camsense Technology Co., Ltd. (English: Camsense, hereinafter referred to as Camsense) announced the completion of the A+ round of financing of more than 25 million yuan, led by well-known domestic investment institutions Fengyang Capital and Chenhui Venture Capital, Nanling Fund and old shareholder Oriental Fuhai followed. Previously, Camsense Technology has received investment from institutions such as Oriental Fuhai and Yicun Capital.

It is understood that Camsense Technology was established in 2014 and is a hardware-based visual spatial positioning technology solution R & D manufacturer. Camsense continues to innovate high-precision positioning sensor products through technology accumulation to meet the positioning and navigation needs of different fields and scenarios such as robots, industrial detection, and medical surgery, and match the "bright eyes" for the development of artificial intelligence.

"At present, the company's main runway in the field of robots has been determined, and it has accumulated a solid foundation in terms of technology, products, mass production capabilities, etc., and will make efforts in the fields of data growth and market share in the future." The funds raised will be mainly used for the continuous research and development of core technologies and products, the investment in automated production lines and equipment, and accelerate the overseas strategic layout. Zhou Kun, founder of Camsense, said in an exclusive interview with Yiou New Manufacturing.

Break the monopoly of high-precision positioning technology and help Camsense help domestic replacement of core components

Over the years, the core components of China's robots have long been subject to international giants such as Japan, the United States and Europe, and import dependence has made domestic robots costly. In the absence of technological innovation, the whole machine industry and downstream integrated applications have encountered a "stuck neck" dilemma. The localization of core components is a necessary stage of the robot market, and it is also a key field supported by the state, and it is urgent to realize the domestic replacement of robot core components.

LiDAR, as one of the core components of robots, realizing its domestic substitution is of great significance to the autonomous development of robots in China. "Camsense is a leading visual technology research and development company with strong competitiveness, which not only breaks the monopoly barriers of foreign high-precision positioning technology, but also creates excellent import substitution products. This is extremely beneficial to China's technological prowess today. Xu Shaoren, head of the Oriental Fuhai project, said.

It is understood that since its establishment in 2014, the company has been committed to the research and development of high-precision positioning vision sensors, and has made great progress in submillimeter detection and positioning in a large space. According to Zhou Kun, when some people in China have made the positioning accuracy less than 1mm, Camsense Technology has achieved the positioning accuracy to less than 0.2mm.

At present, Camsense's core technologies include high-precision monocular spatial positioning algorithms and corresponding chips and sensor modules, as well as high-performance ASIC image processing chips. As of November this year, Camsense has filed 11 related patent applications, of which 32 have been granted.

"Unlike ordinary electronic products, which only need to be patched and assembled on the circuit board, lidar is a precision opto-mechanical and electrical integration product, which involves core technologies such as optics, mechanical structure, electronic engineering and chips, and a subtle structural change in it will have a huge impact on ranging." According to our actual calculations, the change of 3 microns in lidar will cause changes in the robot's ranging of tens of centimeters, and the amplification effect is very obvious. If you can control the micron-level changes, it will be a great improvement for the product. Zhou Kun said.

Feel the stones to cross the river and cross the mass production steps

How to overcome the difficulties of the rising market is the biggest bottleneck encountered by core parts enterprises. How to break through the market application, break the market, and make the core parts of the robot more in-depth, mass production capacity is particularly important.

Generally speaking, before a product is launched, it will go through several stages such as research and development, testing, trial production, and mass production. After solving the difficulties in R&D testing, Camsense also encountered the mass production problems that innovative companies usually encounter.

In fact, before mass production, clear product standards are essential. Only when the standards are clear and the product production has a target to examine, mass production will be more natural. However, when a technology is implemented in an emerging field, it usually faces the problem of no standard for reference.

"There is no one standard in the sensor industry, it is not like a light bulb, a screw has a clear industry standard. There are national production standards, and only need to produce products that meet national standards to qualify. However, lidar belongs to emerging industry segments, and specific industry standards are missing, and we can only cross the river by feeling the stones. Zhou Kun said.

According to reports, when the initial downstream robot manufacturers put forward the demand for lidar, they were not clear about the specific industry standards, because in emerging development fields, market acceptance is difficult to predict. Taking sweeping robots as an example, earthquake resistance and fall resistance are basic needs, but the specific anti-fall standards do not have clear industry standards, and need to be continuously improved through practical applications.

In fact, not only lidar, all "emerging" technologies in the process from research and development to gradually introduced to the market, will inevitably encounter various problems, because there is no precedent to follow, "technology landing scenarios, market feeding technology" is indeed the only solution.

In addition to industry standards, mass production quantity forecasting is a tricky issue. From R&D design to mass production and launch, it is an iterative process. The tape-out cycle of chips and other chips is long, and if the production volume is small, it cannot meet the market demand in a short period of time; If the number of products produced is much higher than the market demand, it will cause inventory backlog and tight working capital, which is not conducive to the effective operation of enterprises.

欢创科技通过自有算法和芯片一系列创新，以100%消费电子的供应链实现了高精度高可靠性激光雷达量产，大幅降低成本的同时解决了国外专利风险问题。

Ray, managing partner of Chenhui Venture Capital, said, "The market penetration rate of sweeping robots will continue to increase, and with the entry of more downstream brand manufacturers, upstream companies in this track have the opportunity to grow rapidly, and this matter is very suitable for local Chinese companies to complete." Camsense Technology is based on its independent research and development of technical path and solid production and quality control capabilities, launched highly competitive products in the industry, helped a number of benchmark customers to achieve large-scale mass production, is a very worthy company in this track. ”

At present, Camsense Technology's products include the professional-grade high-precision positioning system Camsense S, Camsense M Pro and the consumer-grade lidar Camsense®®® X1. The consumer-grade lidar Camsense® X1 is used for sweeping robots, monitoring robots positioning and navigation, obstacle avoidance, etc., and has been landed in first-line brands such as Lenovo, 360, Formart and first-line solution manufacturers such as Yiwei, Yinxing, and Baole. The high-precision positioning system Camsense® M Pro can be widely used in testing institutions, service robot manufacturers, etc., and has been commercialized in CTI Testing, Haier, Midea and 360 robot laboratories.

Favor the light-colored "red sea" market and focus on the field of surgical robots

Technology change is accelerating, innovative enterprises are emerging one after another, and enterprises are actively engaged in continuous competition for technology landing and product replacement. After the initial emergence, how to maintain sustainable competitiveness and find new growth points for technology landing is a problem that every innovative technology enterprise should continue to think about.

For Camsense, LiDAR, there is still a lot of room for imagination in the future. After achieving initial results in the field of sweeping robots and industrial testing, where will it be in the future?

"We are optimistic about the development of the field of surgical robots and will make efforts in this direction in the future." In fact, when looking for a technology track, we prefer to do a red sea market, and the best time is a light red market that turns from blue to red. The crimson market is too bloody, while the blue ocean market is full of uncertainty. Zhou Kun said.

In short, the market with unclear future and unclear prospects is not Camsense's goal, and it is best to seek corner overtaking after technology accumulation.

"Although in the medical field, the cycle of medical devices such as surgical robot navigation equipment is relatively long, not only involving medical device qualifications, clinical trials, etc., but also involving cooperation with the whole machine factory, we are still optimistic about the development of visual positioning sensors in this field." Because in developed countries in Europe and the United States, the navigation of surgical instruments has become very common and efficient, and the accuracy of Camsense's visual positioning sensor and other key indicators have met the relevant requirements, we will actively work towards this method for a long time in the future. Zhou Kun added.

Yang Xi, Partner of FengYang Capital, said, "Since its establishment, FengYang Capital has focused on the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, of which smart home is the most important investment scenario, and we attach great importance to platform-based technology companies that support the autonomous positioning and navigation of smart home devices. We look forward to this financing accelerating Camsense's growth into a leader in this industry segment, and Fengyang Capital will also use its extensive layout in the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence to support Camsense's development." ”