Whatever our projects, we’re very likely to have data in an Excel spreadsheet at some point. For debugging by looking at log data, it can sometimes be very useful to compare two log files to find differences. I just learned that Excel 2013 Professional has a built in capability to do that. You need the “Inquire” tab, and then select “compare” from that. It’s an add-on, so query help for “inquire” to see how to add it to the ribbon.
Part 1 of this series discussed the sub-$500 XV-11 and RPLIDAR units that are available at the lowest end of the price range. This part of the series discusses lidar units in the $1,000 – $10,000 range. Part 3 will conclude the series with a hands on look at the NV-11, once I’ve received the one I’ve ordered and have had a chance to explore its use.
$1,000 – $10,000 is out of reach for most individual hobbyists, but not unreasonable for a team project or not-particularly well-funded research team. In this price range, you get upper end low-range devices intended for indoor use, but you also move into devices with much longer ranges, intended for indoor or outdoor use, and the recently announced Velodyne Puck provides a new level of performance for a lidar costing less than $10,000.
The chart below, drawn from multiple sources on the web, provides some of the key performance characteristics for $100 – $8,000 lidar units described in the article. Also included for comparison is a $29,900 unit. There are additional factors to consider when purchasing a lidar unit. The purpose of the chart is to give an idea of what performance is available at what price points.
Lidar Comparison Table
If you have less than $1,000, you can get a 2D scanning lidar unit for indoor use with limited range (up to about 6 meters). The lidar will use triangulation rather than time of flight to determine distance. However, the performance appears to rival that of units costing over $1,100, so if you only need a short-range indoor unit, a Neato XV-11 or RPLIDAR is worth considering. the extra cost of the RPLIDAR gets software and support. The XV-11 is only available from resellers who get them from Neato robotic vacuum cleaners. While not supported by the manufacturer, the community had developed drivers, interfaces, and other software for this unit.
If you’re looking for something with a longer range and/or for outdoor use, you’re going to need to spend at least $2,000. In the $2,000 – $6,000 price range you’ll find units rated for outdoor use, with maximum ranges between 8 and 50 meters. These will be 2D scanning units that use time of flight to measure distance. Some of these units can process multiple returns from each pulse, giving an indication, for example, of the height of vegetation if measured from above.
Mid-Priced Hokuyo UTM-30LX-EW lidar
Up until very recently, if you wanted to take the next step up to a 3D scanning, long range, outdoor unit, you needed about $30,000. However the newly announced Velodyne VLP-16, aka, Velodyne Puck will deliver this level of performance at under $8,000. It has 16 channels to scan a 30 degree vertical field of view with each rotation and covers a full 360 degrees.
Velodyne “Puck” 3D Scanning lidar
While not as capable as the Velodyne HDL-32E, included in the above chart for comparison, it is the first multi-channel, 3D scanning, long-range lidar available for less than $10,000. While not as capable as the higher end unit, it also costs less than 1/3rd the price. It will be interesting to see if automated passenger car researchers can utilize this new, lower cost unit.
Part 3 will describe my experience with an XV-11 unit, once it arrives and I have a chance to play around with it.
Google’s automated vehicles are instantly identifiable by the rotating lidar unit mounted on their roofs, and most other automated driving research vehicles are also using lidar, either in similar roof mounted systems (e.g., Bosch), or in multiple units, each with less than a 360 degree field of view (e.g., Carnegie Mellon). These are very powerful, 3D scanning sensors, but they don’t come cheap. According to reports, Google uses a sensor from Velodyne that costs approximately $75,000. Some of those with less than a 360 degree scan can be had at less than half that price, but you need several of them. I don’t think any hobbyists (unless they are in the 1%) are going to run out to get one to use in their robotics project. A good video showing the processed information derived from the Google car is viewable here: http://youtu.be/_EMAoiqLq9Y.
Until just a few years ago, that was about it. If you wanted to experiment with a lidar unit, you needed to shell out over $10,000. But that’s changed, and it’s starting to change even faster.
Lidar generally works by sending out a laser signal and measuring the time it takes to get a reflected signal back from an object. Like radar, you get a range and direction. this distinguishes lidar from laser rangefinders, which determine distance only (and at least one vendor, apparently wanting to exploit the interest in lidar, advertises their rangefinder as a lidar unit). Lidars are not mass-produced, and sophisticated electronics that handle are precise at processing extremely tight time frames (the time of flight difference for a radar return from 1 meter versus 10 meters is EXTREMELY small). Very precise mechanical parts are typically required.
However, in 2010, Neato Robotics introduced a new robotic vacuum cleaner that got robotics hobbyists very excited. Not because they don’t like dirty floors, but because it incorporated a lidar unit as part of its navigation system. And the entire vacuum cleaner, lidar included, cost less than $400. Hobbyists got right to work hacking the lidar unit, and, while the manufacturer doesn’t sell just the lidar units, they are available on ebay and other sources for under $100 each! The interface has been reverse engineered and documented on many websites, including the XV11hacking wiki. Interface code for ROS and other platforms, e.g., arduino, have also been developed. At least one vendor, Get Surreal, sells a controller board for this unit to simplify use.
Part of the cost reduction comes from using a different approach for ranging. Rather than using time of flight for the lidar signal, the Neato unit uses triangulation, with a laser diode emitter and an imager receiver. This eliminates the need for extremely time-precise electronics. A technical paper on their lidar, A Low-Cost Laser Distance Sensor, is available on the web.
Obviously these units don’t compare with a $75,000 unit. Their range is on the order of 6 meters (nice for indoor or slow speed operation, but hardly something you can build an autonomous passenger vehicle around). The resolution is lower, and they produce a 2D scan, not a 3D scan. A nice, short, video demo of the type of performance you might expect is at http://youtu.be/WkW55b-WQx4. One could mount one on a tilt platform and produce a 3D point cloud from multiple scans at different angles of elevation, but it would be slower. This video shows that approach, albeit for a different lidar unit.
the XV-11 Unit, with the top removed. (photo source: Sparkfun)
I’ve got an XV-11 unit and controller board on order, and will report about it in part 3 of this series (which could be awhile in coming).
The XV-11 was the first low-cost lidar unit for hobbyists, but new options at a variety of price ranges are coming available. Robopeak has introduced what appears to be a similar unit to the XV-11, the RP developed and designed for hobbyists and researchers. Priced at $399, it includes, according to reviewers who have purchased the product, good sample drivers for several platforms, including ROS and arduinos, as well as a full SDK and good documentation (something that won’t be found when buying an XV-11 unit on ebay). For many, the greater ease of use and reduced time would be worth the price difference from an XV-11.
RPLIDAR Unit (photo source: DFRobot)
A number of low-priced laser range-finders advertise themselves as lidars, but with this exception, I’ve looked at only systems that scan, either in 2D or 3D as lidars. While a range-finder (1D), the LIDAR-Lite has some very interesting advertised capabilities at a low price point, which might make it worth exploring putting it on a rotating platform as a lidar unit. Rather than directly measuring time of flight, as more expensive units do, or using triangulation like the NX-2, it sends out a coded waveform and, if I understand what they are saying on their website, uses signal processing to look at the shift coming back as compared with an identical reference signal.
The unit is very small (21 X 48.3 X 35.5 mm) along with a similarly sized single PCB board and costs $89. Keep in mind this is for a range-finder. You’d still have to have a precision panning platform to use it as the core of a full lidar. What makes this unit interesting is that with the $89 laser version, with optics, they claim a maximum range of 30-60 meters, and that it works outdoors in sunlight, which is, as far as I can tell, unprecedented for such a low-cost unit.Part 2 of this series will discuss some of what’s available for budgets of $1,000 – $10,000, including the recently announced Velodyne Puck.
Velodyne “Puck” 3D Scanning lidar