LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

Our Team was using the LIDAR Lite rangefinder this year in order to get the distance to the goal. We were thinking of doing a servo mounted version in order to do some basic point cloud tracking of objects on the field. We were going to order a new one for this purpose, however it turns out the the company that was making them (PulsedLight) was bought by Garmin; their website is now offline (http://pulsedlight3d.com/), and we are now worried that they are no longer being manufactured, especially as their previously listed official distributors no longer have any stock.

I was wondering if anybody knows about any low cost, FRC Legal alternatives to the LIDAR Light?

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

In theory, this thing is legal (I can't confirm because I don't know if it is Class 1 or Class 1M though):
http://www.slamtec.com/en

It's just outside of the price range for FRC but I suspect a message to the manufacturer will result in some discounts for FRC teams.

Also, these are legal and within the price range:
https://www.getsurreal.com/product/x...ontroller-v1-2

But they have to be paired with one of these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/1915696...&ul_noapp=true

Also, worth mentioning Intel's RealSense line because I expect to see a few teams using it this coming season.

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

Website appears to be back up. Perhaps they were changing hostings and the DNS took a few days to update?

Looks like they are selling a Garmin branded LIDAR Lite v3 now. SparkFun just put out notice this morning:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14032

Sent from my LGLS751 using Tapatalk

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

Looks to be the same specs as the v2 except it costs $20 more.

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

But it comes with Lifetime Maps for that extra $20.

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

We did some extensive testing with the Robopeak RPLIDAR A1 sensor.
One of our students had some great obstacle avoidance software running that showed the robot making the correct decision most of the time. The only issue is the lasers don't see polycarbonate. Diamond plate=fine, robots=fine, game object=fine, polycarbonate field elements and side panels=no good. I asked this particular student to record his progress but I never got the information from him. Too bad because the work he did looked really good.

I would like to make a setup that uses a lidar to detect everything but the field itself and then mount a spinning ultrasonic sensor or four corner sensors to grossly detect the boundaries of the field. The issue with a spinning ultrasonic is that you can't rotate the sensor very fast due to its response time. We've just never got to that project yet.

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

Recently, a friend of mine had a successful kickstarter campaign for a LIDAR and they are offering preorders as well. Quoted delivery is January, just in time!

http://scanse.io/

Their LIDAR uses the Pulselite tech and I haven't heard of any supply issues from him since the acquisition by Garmin.

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

I didn't see anything on the data sheet specifying what class the laser was. Is it Class 1?

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

The 3rd generation version was just announced and looks like it will be available soon from sparkfun.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14032

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

Oops, should have clarified, I was wondering about the Sweep sensor that Andrew Duerner linked. I know the Lidar-LITE is Class 1, tried to source a v2 for Stronghold but they were OOS everywhere because of the acquisition.

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

There is precious little information on the sweep site about HOW the communication works. I'm pretty sure it's more complicated than just plugging in a USB cable. Will drivers be available for the roboRio? LabVIEW libraries?

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

Thanks, just preordered one. I think I glanced over the e-mail from Sparkfun this morning and missed it.

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

As a backer of the Sweep (http://scanse.io/) I've been anxiously awaiting news. and I found these tidbits today:

From the Kickstarter page:
Scanse Creator on July 27
We will be releasing a driver for the NI roboRIO controller when we begin shipping.

And yes, the laser is a Class I

http://static.garmin.com/pumac/LIDAR... fications.pdf


Hopefully the team will be able to put it to good use (suppose to ship in November).

Re: LIDAR Lite Alternative
 

I just noticed that you can get this for $359, so it's now below the $400 FRC single-part threshold — yay!

http://www.robotshop.com/en/rplidar-...r-scanner.html