LIDAR Point Cloud

Robotics Engineering

How It Works

Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors evaluate spatial distances to surrounding obstacles by emitting collimated laser pulses and timing photon return times-of-flight (ToF). Rotating scanning optics sweep pulsed beams through full azimuth angles, converting polar range coordinates (d_i, θ_i) into discrete Cartesian point cloud representations. Mobile robots utilize these high-density point clouds for obstacle mapping, occupancy grid formation, and real-time SLAM localization.

Governing Equation
d_i = (c · Δ t_i) / 2 , x_i = d_i cos θ_i , y_i = d_i sin θ_i