Hi guys! Recently I had a chance to experiment with Livox Mid-40 - a 230 m range LiDAR using rotational Risley Prisms.
I thought I would share my findings with the community in case it can be considered a viable scanning solution!
The first thing to note about this unit is the weight of 710g that could be a blocker for smaller UAVs. The scanning field of view is 38.4° (circular) and the scanning pattern is as follows:
Visualizing the data here is a raw point cloud of a static scene (decay time - 0s, the gif shows the consecutive scans):
When we preserve each of the scan for 2 seconds we get such results:
My initial idea for using this sensor was for SLAM however due to the scanning pattern I found it difficult to use with off the shelf tools however I think the sensor could work well for UAV laser scanning (assuming a decent positioning system).
If anyone of you based in Europe has a platform that could carry this LiDAR and a positioning system we could use for referencing the scans then I'd be up for some joint integration project.
If you would like to learn more about this LiDAR here is a review that I wrote on my blog. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and if you have any ideas for some further tests then let me know!
Comments
I had just gone through Inertial development kit but i am little doubt on accuracy part. can you suggest any other budget alternate to improve accuracy
Hi Nicolas! My schedule is very tight these days but we can definitely discuss this over e-mail. Would you mind writing to me at mat@msadowski.ch ?
Cheers,
Mat
Hi Mateusz,
I run a company near geneva (escadrone.com at grenoble in france) we have drones that can carry the livox and centimetric gps solution. we also can compare to photogrametric dataset we have. As DJI recently did some communication again we are curious on this products. Are you still interested in some aerial tests?
Best regards
It's about 600$
price?
Darrel it looks like you have a solid plan! Keep me posted as you go! If you run into any issues let me know and I'll try to help. My main business is consulting but I'm happy to do a 20-30 minutes free session with you!
Amazing price for this lidar ! I am very curious of the final accuracy.
Thanks for sharing this. Mine arrived yesterday and I will be trying out a similar static test over the weekend. I will be testing this as a small area mapping platform attached to my DJI S900 frame (emlid edge controller). My plan is to use an intel nuc (i3) on board together with my reach+ GNSS for position (ppk) and the onboard IMU for attitude. It is possible (probable) that a better IMU will be needed but I will see. I have access to tools for georeferencing the point cloud from the moving sensor (postprocerssing) and will see whether I can get everything to work. May take some time :) I will be interested to see how you and anyone else gets on with this (I may need help[)