LIDAR on Robot Vacuum and Why Is It Important

LiDAR: stands for Light Detection And Ranging, and is similar to radar, but uses light instead of radio waves

One of the first things to understand is the operation of the LiDAR device itself. This device plays a central role in the navigation process: it’s used to gather information about the objects surrounding the robot (walls, doors, etc)

Localization: is the process of determining where the robot is located, relative to objects in it’s environment.

Mapping: is the process of building maps based on data acquired from one or more sensors.

Path planning: is the process of determining a path for the robot to follow, in order to reach a ‘goal’. A goal is just where you want the robot to go.

Dynamic obstacle detection: is the process of detecting objects in the environment that were not present during the mapping process, but are now nonetheless present.

Avoidance: is the process of path planning around dynamically occurring objects. The rest of this article will make use of these terms, and also highlight details from the above videos, to provide a framework for exploring the topic of navigation

Using these techniques of mapping, obstacle inflation and path planning, the robot is able to move towards its goal and dynamically avoid obstacles, even as those obstacles move into and out of it’s currently intended path

Sounds interesting? You can read the full article here https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/article/2015/11/low-cost-lidar-based-navigation-for-mobile-robotics/7270