An affordable solid-state one for autonomous vehicles. This could have space applications for autodocking and mating.
4 thoughts on “LIDAR”
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An affordable solid-state one for autonomous vehicles. This could have space applications for autodocking and mating.
Comments are closed.
I bought a sensor called the LIDARLite for a hobby UAV in similarly sized package a few years ago, but it was nowhere near as capable as that Velodyne unit. It was expensive for a hobbyist, over $100, but I had much better luck with its position output that than trying to fuse accel/gyro/barometer.
An acquaintance of mine who works at NSA turned me on to this little gem. Hot Wheels used to sell a little X-band Doppler radar gun that kids could use to measure the speed of the little race cars. Its design was quite sophisticated, but in 2007 (it is now discontinued) it retailed for $30, and according to one electronics engineer, probably cost about $10 to $15 to manufacture.
Adapting it to do both speed measurement and range measurement shouldn’t be a big deal. And it would get around the inevitable problem with optical ranging systems on cars of dirt and water obscuring the optics.
For a Doppler radar that measures just speed you heterodyne the received echo with the transmit frequency, and measure the much lower frequency of the result. To measure distance you need to pulse the transmitter quickly and measure precise time to the echo. Completely different measurement techniques.
You can measure range using an FM or phase modulation on a CW radar.