e-con Systems launches DepthVista Helix 3D CW iToF Camera

Global provider of embedded machine vision systems e-con Systems announced the launch of its DepthVista Helix 3D Continuous Wave iToF Camera.

The company said that it's a high-performance depth camera engineered to deliver reliable and accurate 3D perception for a wide range of industrial robotics applications, including Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), pick-and-place, bin-picking, palletization and depalletization robots, industrial safety and automation, and smart agriculture.

Expanded perception camera portfolio

e-con Systems said that this new camera is based on a 1.2MP onsemi Hyperlux ID AF0130 global shutter depth sensor, which delivers simultaneous high-resolution depth, confidence and IR grayscale streams using Continuous-Wave indirect Time of Flight (CW-iTOF) technology. e-con Systems said that it is designed for easy integration with NVIDIA Jetson Orin platforms.

The company said that a key differentiator of its DepthVista Helix is its dual VCSEL illumination architecture, which it engineered to strike the optimal balance between performance, cost and mechanical design.

“For industrial robotics, depth sensing must deliver metric accuracy with predictable and repeatable behavior under real operating conditions, not just favorable lab performance,” said Prabu Kumar Kesavan, CTO at e-con Systems. “With the DepthVista Helix 3D CW indirect Time-of-Flight camera, we provide 1.2MP per-pixel depth measurement based on phase-shift analysis of modulated illumination, enabling robots to reconstruct true scene geometry rather than relying on appearance-based or inferred depth cues. This system-level approach enables reliable detection of fine and low-profile obstacles, improved grasp localization accuracy and stable navigation even in low ambient light, reflective environments and optically complex multi-robot warehouse deployments.”

To simplify deployment, e-con Systems provides the DepthVista SDK, which includes V4L2-based Linux camera drivers, depth visualization and control tools, reference applications for Static box dimensioning and pose estimation. This software framework significantly reduces development time and enables faster evaluation, prototyping, and production deployment. 

e-con Systems provided the following key capabilities of its new camera:

• On-camera depth computation with integrated on-chip depth processing ensures exceptional depth precision with <1% deviation over 0.2m–2m and 0.5m–6m ranges

• High-resolution depth sensing delivering 1.2MP @ 60 fps

• IP67-ratedated camera design with GMSL2 cable support
• Multi-camera interference mitigation to ensure stable depth performance when multiple cameras are deployed on robots or in multi-robot environments
• Compatibility with NVIDIA Jetson platforms, including Orin NX and Orin AGX
• Dual-frequency Continuous Wave iToF operation supporting long-range, high-precision depth measurement with improved multipath suppression
• Advanced depth confidence filtering to suppress reflections, edge noise and unstable depth pixels
• Narrow field of view (NFOV) of the depth camera enables precise distance measurement with dense point-cloud data and reduced multipath interference
• GMSL, MIPI and USB interface options to support flexible system integration
• Optional RGB sensor support for simultaneous capture of visual and depth data
• DepthVista SDK with Linux drivers, sample applications and depth visualization tools.

“onsemi’s AF0130, part of the Hyperlux ID iToF family, is engineered for precise real-time 3D sensing in industrial environments,” said Steve Harris, senior director of marketing, Industrial and Commercial Sensing division, onsemi. “Its global shutter and unique pixel architecture capture and store all phases simultaneously, minimizing motion artifacts. Combined with integrated on-chip depth processing, the sensor outputs depth, confidence and intensity data, making it ideal for robotic applications including autonomous mobile robots, material handling systems and access control systems.”