I am considering using LIDAR as a means to localize a robot within a defined 3 dimensional cartesian space.
My though was to have 2 LIDARs (currently looking at RPLIDAR A2M8 360° Laser Scanner) perpendicular to each other where one device would determine the X and Z position while the other would determine the Y and Z position.
My question is: since the LIDARs are the same is there a means to disable the laser emission from one so that it won’t read the laser from the other? Therefore can I specify timing in between 2 devices accurately enough?
Thanks for any suggestions or solution in advance.
Hello @pdf417 and welcome to the RobotShop community,
My though was to have 2 LIDARs (currently looking at RPLIDAR A2M8 360° Laser Scanner) perpendicular to each other where one device would determine the X and Z position while the other would determine the Y and Z position.
Sounds good, however since the LIDARS will be mounted on a robotic platform a lot of the field of view of the one scanning the Y-axis will be blocked by the platform itself, which is kind of a waste. So I think a better solution could be to use the same LIDAR for both planes using a pan and tilt platform, that way you perform a scan in the XY plane, disable the scan and rotate the LIDAR to perform another scan for the YZ plane.
My question is: since the LIDARs are the same is there a means to disable the laser emission from one so that it won’t read the laser from the other?
It is certainly possible to stop the scanning (disable the laser diode and the measurement system) using a STOP request (check the communication protocol manual page 12) which makes the RPLIDAR to enter an Idle state. However I don’t know how often you can do this so I don’t know if it is possible to do a “simultaneous” scan of both planes, but if you are interested in this I suggest you contact SLAMTEC directly.
