Unboxing - RPLidar A2 360° Laser Scanner

*note* : for discussing any technical issues with your RPLidar A2, please proceed to our forum and create a new topic here. Most of you, by now, are likely aware of the RPLIDAR 360° Laser Scanner. This amazing product gave hobbyists everywhere the chance to get started on SLAM-based projects at an affordable cost and with a piece of equipment of good quality. Of course, improvements to this product were possible and RoboPeak did just that, by bringing us the RPLidar A2.

Packaging

Improvements

The manufacturer made several improvements with the RPLidar A2, such as:

• Longer life cycle (meant for continuous running, 24/7), DC motor upgraded to a brushless DC motor
• Faster rotation speed, increased from 5.5 Hz  to 10 Hz
• Higher sampling rate, increased from 2000 samples per second to 4000 samples
• More accurate than the previous model at the same speed
• Sleek new compact design
  RPLIDAR A2

Documentation

Fortunately, all those improvements did not remove any backward compatibility with the interface. As usual, all the relevant technical information (datasheet, user guide, protocol) can be found on the product page, under Useful Links. You can also find a copy of the SDK, which contains an example to test your RPLidar with and view the data.

How to SLAM ?

While you are waiting for the arrival of your RPLidar A2, this would be a good time to read about all the cool things you can do with it! If you don't know too many things about SLAM, you can read more about it here. If you are ready to jump into SLAM algorithms from various researchers, you should have a look at OpenSLAM.org. Finally, if you simply want to gather the data and process it yourself, you may want to check out the PCL (Point Cloud Library). It exposes all the steps of managing point clouds and many features to handle them properly. The RPLidar A2 is available for pre-order and is expected to arrive is July.