When I first became interested in LIDAR technology, I had no idea where to start. I didn’t know which sensor to use. I didn’t know that the LIDAR sensor that I found could be used indoors or outdoors.

I wish there had been a list like this, detailing the sensors to use in robot navigation for simultaneously localize and map (SLAM) or obstacle detection.

If you think I’ve left an important one out, please leave me a note in the comments or send me an email.

1. Single Point Ranging LIDAR Sensors

The LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor is used in robotics to determine how far the objects are from the sensor. The sensor uses a laser beam for detection and tracking the obstacles.

In this part of the article, you will find small size sensors great for attaching to a servo motor to scan back and forth for obstacle avoidance.

These sensors are single point LIDAR working on the Time of Flight principle. The distance measured may be affected by the environment illumination intensity and the reflectivity of the detected object.

TFMini – Micro LiDAR Module (Qwiic)

TFmini Plus

LIDAR-Lite v3

Lightware SF23-B

Lightware SF20-C

Lightware SF30-D

2. 360 Scanner LIDAR Sensors

The 360 LIDAR scanners are reliable and currently affordable range sensors that provide information about a dynamic environment at good rates and process the data in real-time.

A 360 LIDAR makes a land scan and interprets the data in 2D coordinates – work out x and y coordinates of a point. The 2D point cloud data can be used to build a map of the environment, localization of the robot, and obstacle detection.

In this part of the article, you will find the 360 LIDAR sensors ideal for indoor and outdoor applications and available at a reasonable price.

YDLIDAR TX8

YDLIDAR X2

YDLIDAR X4

YDLIDAR G2

RPLIDAR A2

RPLIDAR A2M7

YDLIDAR G4

RPLIDAR A3M1

RPLIDAR S1