[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by headlight

I'd love to see them add a LIDAR of some sort. They are basically a given in most autonomous navigation competitions.

I've been looking for FRC friendly LIDAR options. I'm looking at obtaining one of these for experimentation this fall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zgn-GuVt3A

Datasheet:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/document/...r_brief_en.pdf

For sale here:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/RPL...it-p-1823.html

They come in just under the budget restrictions and use a laser that is out of the visible spectrum. It'll probably require some hardening to help it survive field conditions.

You might be able to use something like this as a laser switch, it is also out of the visible spectrum so should be safe.
https://store.3drobotics.com/products/lidar-lite/

Datasheet:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwbD...pvTFdEZnM/edit

looks pretty sweet... 2 notes to make sure you don't have issues with inspection:
- make sure you bring a copy of the datasheet with you so your inspector can see it's class 1
- take a careful look at the included "motor system" odds are you'll need to swap out the motor that's included for an FRC legal motor!