Today, Velodyne is announcing a "a groundbreaking design for a solid-state lidar sensor that can deliver a subsystem cost of under $50 U.S. when sold in high-volume manufacturing scale.

Before:

After ?:

What you're seeing is the GaN integrated circuit that forms the heart of the solution that Velodyne is proposing. This is the chip that does the transmit function.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/sensors/velodyne-announces-breakthrough-in-solid-state-lidar-design

World's Smallest Cyclocopter: 29 grams

Innovative carbon composite rotor blades (0.12 grams each) and pitch links (10 milligrams), sub-millimeter accuracy, custom 1.3-gram autopilot.

Cyclocopters get particularly interesting at very small scales because of their combination of very high maneuverability and potential for excellent efficiency. They have experimentally demonstrated the higher aerodynamic efficiency (thrust per unit aerodynamic power).

Do you have any data on this "excellent efficiency" ?

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/drones/worlds-smallest-cyclocopter-brings-unique-design-to-microdrones

4-channel LIDAR laser

Dimensions 8 mm x 5 mm
Peak optical output 85 W at 30 A per channel
Wavelength 905 nm
Pulse length < 5 ns
Operating voltage 24 V

The overall lidar system covers 120 degrees in the horizontal plane, with 0.1 degree of resolution, and 20 degrees in the vertical plane, with 0.5 degree of resolution. In the light of day, it should detect cars from at least 200 meters away, and pedestrians at 70 meters out.

The MEMS chip can operate at up to 2 kilohertz

The company says test samples will be available in 2017, and that commercial models could arrive in 2018.

With mass production, the price should drop to around 40 Euros (US $43.50)

http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/sensors/osrams-laser-chip-for-lidar-promises-supershort-pulses-in-a-smaller-package

http://www.osram-group.de/en/media/news/press-releases/pr-2016/07-11-2016