Scanning a room in 3D with a Livox Mid-40 on a rotating tripod

The aim was to show what a Livox LiDAR can do by capturing a 3D point cloud of the inside of a room with a low-cost sensor.

• The Mid-40 and a motor were mounted on a tripod, and the Mid-40 turned around the vertical axis to scan different parts of the room. The data was then merged into one 3D image.
• A DJI Manifold 2 computer took the point cloud over Ethernet and controlled the motor over its CAN port. A PID controller kept the speed constant using the motor's encoder.
• Angle readings and point cloud packets were both sent at 1 kHz and matched to each other. The motor returns to its zero position at power-up and then swings back and forth through a set angle.
• Most parts apart from the tripod were housed in a box to keep the set portable.

• With a 0.1 second integration time the field-of-view coverage equals that of a 32-line mechanical scanning LiDAR, and with 0.5 seconds it equals a 64-line LiDAR.
• A room was scanned for 30 seconds. Livox says the result covers most of the room in rich detail and is comparable with multi-line mechanical scanning LiDARs, at a much lower cost.
• Livox calls it a simple test with many points that could be improved.

Livox Mid-40 LiDAR, DJI Manifold 2, a GM6020 motor with encoder, a 24 V battery and a step-down converter. The Mid-40 is an earlier Livox model; for current sensors see our Livox LiDAR range.