Is LIDAR easy to use for hobbyists? DIY Roomba? Obstacle Avoidance System for Robotics

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In this video we will have a closer look at a commercial LIDAR sensor for hobbyists. We will find out how the sensor manages to measure the distance to objects placed all around it and how we can use this data with a computer and an Arduino. At the end I will then create a small robot which uses the LIDAR system to "crudely" navigate through a room. Let's get started!
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Music:
2011 Lookalike by Bartlebeats
Killing Time, Kevin MacLeod
(incompetech.com)

[@greatscottlab]

Small correction: The speed of light is of course 299792 km/s, not 299792 m/s. Sorry.

[@Lutfi6545]

Wow, that was a freaking fast

[@JADES-GS-z13-0]

You never reply to any comment, why?

[@justcallme00oogy]

That's disappointing! I was so excited to shout in the comments and have likes rain on me then I saw this comment 😪

[@JonathanKayne]

Hey what is the name of the song you are playing around 1:38? Its not listed in the video description btw.

[@Sorrentino_Gianni]

#GottaGoFast

[@EtecMax]

This sensor dosent use time of flight (tof) which would be terrible expensive. It measures the angle of the returning lightbeam with a linear ccd. In the description of the sensor they also write triangulation principle.

[@MorRobots]

Yep it is a parallax system, however Y You can actually build a ToF sensor with relatively inexpensive electronics, issue is they're not fast enough for this kind of scan rate.

[@kotqrka]

Actually, there are ready-to-use pretty cheap ToF sensors. VL53L0X by ST for instance.

[@klassichd10]

Exactly. This most probably is the triangulation sensor for vacuum cleaner robots working using triangulation and NOT ToF. There is a paper of 2008 IEEE International Conference onRobotics and AutomationPasadena, CA, USA, May 19-23, 2008; Kurt Konolige, Joseph Augenbraun, Nick Donaldson, Charles Fiebig, and Pankaj Shah: A Low-Cost Laser Distance Sensor. But unfortunately many youtubers are mixing these things up.

[@EtecMax]

@@kotqrka that thing looks interesting. Thoug it doesnt measure very far and only distances in 1D not 2D, but thats only a matter of time. It is a while since i looked into the 2D sensors and they are still to expensive for my purposes, maybe sensors like this could push the price down even more

[@minikindaniil99]

well, using latest stm32g4 that has timer with resolution around 180ps it's possible to build tof sensor with res around 60mm

[@francescovalle8678]

How amazing is the communication between the main board and the part that rotate... Fantastic

[@yasyasmarangoz3577]

ok

[@mrfrozen97-despicable]

Lifi

[@OskarP2601]

Agreed

[@amremam8937]

This was used in VCRs, it's even more elegant in VCRs, as the rotary transformer used to transfer both data and power And the motor is brushless motor that can run for years without the need to replace brushes

[@fazlurrahman4278]

Great video as always! To use the Lidar in an easier way, you can use Robotic Operating System (ROS) to handle the data and do the make a program to control it. However, learning how to use ROS is one thing, but once you know it, it's really helpful!

[@raytest01]

Yep, I don't think this module using ToF to sensing the distance, because it require a Time-to-Digital converter(TDC) in the system usually it require a addition IC or FPGA, a counting based TDC can be implemented in STM32 but the resolution can not be promising. So this module seems to measure the phase difference instead of the time difference.

[@PixlRainbow]

The datasheet does actually say that this modules does use triangulation with a low resolution infrared camera sensor However, some versions of STM32 microcontrollers have programmable DSPs onboard that are powerful enough to render 3D graphics or do radio communication

[@raytest01]

@@PixlRainbow Great to know that, thanks for the information.

[@jeanyluisa8483]

Makes sense. I already wondered how an STM32 can be fast enough to measure the distance by the travelling time of light. That's fragments of nanoseconds for short distances in a room.

[@sindotj]

The only electronics channel to spend time that worth every single second....

[@Diamonddrake]

You can run any Arduino at 3.3v and it will just work. Also you can take 3.3v as a digital high in a 5v system and use a voltage divider or zener shunt to output the 3.3. I know Scott knows this, but sometimes his individual choices come out sounding like what he “had to do” instead of what he “happened to do” this post is for the “I already have an Arduino why can’t I use that one” crowd. To which the answer is you can. Just don’t push 5v into the lidar without checking the data sheet for tolerance.

[@foobarmaximus3506]

Yeah, you would think everyone would know this if they have an interest in robotics and electronics. Folks need to pick up a textbook every now and then. Couldn't hurt.

[@YukonK9]

Maybe convert the LIDAR robot as your garage's security guard bot?

[@KingJellyfishII]

The "stay creative, and I will see you next time!" has been getting slowly more enthusiastic as time goes on.

[@dreggory82]

I've noticed the same thing.

[@elephant3109]

crazy, rihgt?

[@KingJellyfishII]

@@justgame5508 yes that may be true. It's just an observation I made.

[@jarboer]

Omg the fact you posted this video after the fact I was think it would be cool to try to make a lawnmower that’s self driving kinda like a roomba, I crazy it’s like you read my mind! Awesome video by the way!

[@pmgodfrey]

Man, you just get a thumbs up for being awesome...and we haven't even covered how smart you are. I'm always impressed by your videos and I've learned so much. Thanks for taking the time to create them.

[@alptekintanatar3350]

Thanks a lot for the 1 year elektor subscription I am gonna keep it brief so, many thanks... :)

[@phat.phan1]

OMG OMG I was looking for this for so long and finally Scott talk about it.

[@IchMagandMeGusta]

"Terrible at writing code" "Limited success" You and I have very different definitions of "terrible at writing code" haha!

[@AmeshaSpentaArmaiti]

You don't get better if you like your own work! crippling self-doubt is where talent is born.

[@simontay4851]

He's really good in my opinion. I wouldn't know where to start with writing code. Im a hardware person.

[@thewhitedragon4184]

@@simontay4851 Start by stealing other people's code. Meaning use libraries that do the job you need

[@AndersJackson]

Have you seen his code?

[@steve00alt70]

Python

[@over00lordunknown12]

I’m glad you showed how the data and power is handled, I’m always interested in how that is done inside devices where it spins more then 360 degrees. (In this case it was LEDs for data and coils for wireless power)

[@foobarmaximus3506]

When it goes past 360 degrees, it creates a tiny worm-hole that objects can pass through and arrive in another part of the Galaxy. It doesn't have enough power to transport outside that range at present, but they are working on it.

[@Sekhar_Home]

I watched within few minute but the total viewer at that time reached 5k.. it shows how much popular is ur channel... Keep doing and stay creative.,😀😀

[@electronicscaos]

I used to love Elektor since I was a kid, every month I bought it, from my 9's to my 14's, when I started working in industry and finally got a way to subscribe and receive it every month at home. It really was the best electronics magazine in Brazil, until it fooled around every subscriber, simply disappearing, no phone to ask to refund (I subscribed for annual payment), just there they was in one month and gone in the next. I feel it as one of the most disappointing experiences of my life, since I loved all of their contents. Well, I started importing the magazines from another countries once in a while, to tell you how good their contents are, but I'll never forget how they fooled brazilians.

[@zfrenchy1716]

Elektor is awesome, got that since 80's

[@kaetir]

I was working with lidar and arduino It's not that hard. There is some few library over internet to help. If you realy have some problem with programming it doesn't help but trust me, for some student project lidar is a very good investment

[@TheSansui123]

Felt like I had a stroke reading that

[@jashmota5054]

Can you name some libraries to get started? Thanks

[@Okayler1337]

Im also interested in the libraries :)

[@luxolfmh]

Great video. It's not that big of your fault. Those cheap robot kits come with cheap motors as well (the yellow ones) the main inconvenient is that they spin at different speed even they receive the same PWM because they are not identical. In a project we made, we tried to control them with a PID using a MPU5060 gyroscope, and a Ultrasonic sensor to prevent for crashing into the walls. The PID was a fail. Hope you could succeed. Excellent video. Greetings from Ecuador. Also try tu use a L298 driver for the motors they are a big help.

[@bonafide9085]

XKT-412 is a voltage controlled oscillator. I have used this in my wireless POV display project to make an LC oscillator.

[@christophbeer3417]

You really should try to make a robot with the RPI and ROS (robot operating system). The lidar has some really nice packages you can use. Keep in mind the RPI should only be used as a data publisher to a real computer.

[@Flix-f6q]

ROS for hobbyists? I don't deny its capabl, butis it easy enough to learn? What about budget?how much for the whole system? Hobbyist servos ore closed loop servos?

[@TheRealKuif]

Great :)! just nitpicking here a little. But the Lidar doesn't spit out HEX values, it spits out binary data. Hexadecimal is only a representation of that. Also, I think a lot of the corrupted data might simply be because you have the TX and RX pins permanently connected, causing the LIDAR module and Arduino to talk at the same time, resulting in invalid bytes. Otherwise, cool demo :)

[@DieBastler1234]

I feel you ran out of time for the video, when it started to get interesting and fun. Don't let KZbin burnout get you :/

[@heissklebepanzer]

Dafuq, why do you call him Chris?

[@clonkex]

@@heissklebepanzer I can't say I know what his actual name is, but I'm guessing "Great Scott" is a reference to BTTF.

[@DieBastler1234]

@@heissklebepanzer Don't know why I think he's called that, maybe he mentioned it in older videos, maybe I'm just wrong :) I'll remove the name from my comment, I wasn't aware it's a secret.

[@abdulazeez.98]

@@DieBastler1234 He did mention it a Q&A video. I think the first one. Edit: this one kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZonSYaKBp52HnsU

[@JulienTJ]

@@abdulazeez.98 No, it was sarcasm.

[@fujihita2500]

Tfw I never realized power supply and communication would be a problem for a spinning sensor. My first solution would be running a separate battery on the spinning part and using RF for the communication but damn...wireless charging coils? That's some brilliant stuff right there! Thanks for the upload. I learned a lot.

[@TechsScience]

I had to know how it transfers data through spinning disk you explained it nicely 🙂

[@rpavlik1]

It's always cool when a sensor uses a more powerful chip as a coprocessor (stm32f302 iirc?) than your main system controller (poor little atmega328p...). Though, I suppose such a topology would make good sense if the coprocessor was only needed intermittently and could be put in power save most of the time. A little surprised they have so much rotating mass on that unit, I figured the only thing to rotate would be a mirror.

[@wannerke]

Thanks Scott for the free magazine! No credit card needed! 👍👍

[@qvatch]

it may be the first in-video ad I've made use of. Short, backed by GreatScotts long term interest, no risk trial. Very nice.

[@agustincosta8106]

If you are interested in trying some more advanced robotics projects you should look into using ROS (Robot Operating System). It is a great framework to easily develop robotic systems without needing to program everything yourself as it has many tutorials and a great community of developers that make libraries you can implement, including some to make use of that lidar for autonomous navigation and mapping

[@funkimunky1]

Thank you for the elektor code GreatScott. I love elektor but getting access for free is fantastic.

[@SonofTheMorningStar666]

Yeah. A full year is amazing.

[@MorRobots]

I'm almost dead nuts positive that's a parallax sensor, not ToF.

[@dash8brj]

Well, I stand corrected, I always thought it stood for Laser Infrometry Distance And Ranging. :P You realise that only the really posh vacuum cleaner robots have a LIDAR on board, the rest are just "bump and guess" machines - they bump into an object, turn a random amount, and then continue on their way, hopefully not bumping into another object too soon, so they can do a good job at vacuuming the floor.

[@Xanthopteryx]

Xiaomi S5 is cheap and amazingly good at navigating, using lidar, ir and probably more.

[@window.location]

First robot on scott channel We love to see this type videos in future

[@pranalisarpotdar8203]

S

[@Chris__K]

Interesting 👍 What about a DIY or BUY episode about LIDAR-Sensors?

[@kaumohlamonyane272]

Seems like Patreon supporters are spoiled😋 we are 2 videos in advance

[@greatscottlab]

Well, thanks for the support :-)

[@mackdlite5900]

What's coming up?

[@gflaig9131]

0:08 very nice drawing. Your schematics and explanations are awesome.

[@sergeantseven4240]

89.95 USD is still pretty pricey for hobbyists. The one Sparkfun was selling was close to 300 USD so its a huge improvement but its still pricey.

[@santopino2546]

Elektor, I followed them in the late 70's, they're from Holland, I think it should be the same magazine.

[@ElektorTV]

Hi! Yes - we are the same Elektor! But today, we are not only a Dutch magazine. We publish in English, Dutch, French, and German. Our engineers, authors, and editors are from a wide variety of countries. We are truly global! We are offering Great Scott subscribers a FREE 1-year subscription to the digital version of Elektor magazine! Simply use the URL and code provided in the video description. A membership gets you Elektor magazine (digital), access to the Elektor mag archive, and more! At the bottom of the landing page on the Elektor site is info about the other language editions of Elektor. So you can read Elektor in English, Dutch, German or French. Enjoy!

[@AK90]

"YDLIDAR get Scandata fialed!!" lol Nice typo in the source code :P

[@code_byter7798]

Awesome video! I recently got the same Lidar. I'm using it on my ROS robot. The robot is completed, it's supposed to drive autonomously around in my room, create a map using the Lidar and find my mate tea cup using a camera. Once it's found, I want to get a notification with the position marked in a map. So far, I built the robot and worked on the mapping part. Maybe we could collaborate on a Lidar project?

[@foobarmaximus3506]

So, did it work? LOL

[@lulling.9235]

I'd love to hear about the process!

[@netcomptech]

Suggestion for a video: interface an Arduino (or other SBC) with an off the shelf motion sensing outdoor light and a web cam and save a few seconds of video to a networked PC.

[@bartoszcelmer]

In case You have 3V3 uart device and 5V version Arduino it also works nice if You attach to [Arduino RX]-[3V3 TX] ( most atmegas takes 2V7 and up as high, so 3V3 is OK ) and simple voltage divider ( from two resistors ) to Arduino TX to lower output :) Any way I like Your channel very much! All best!

[@sneakyg1250]

awesome, a couple of years ago i was looking for a lidar but couldnt find any good cheap options !

[@SleepyCod467]

THIS IS VERY COOL. Thanks for making all these interesting videos. I wanted to make one of these myself, this is some good motivation! Keep up the great work

[@briankiplagat254]

Thanks again for lighting up our world in regards to electronics....huge fan 🤗🤗🤗

[@mrexplosive2437]

This is exactly what I’ve needed for my projects thanks scott

[@2typed]

If you want to know the speed of light in a vacuum in meters per second, it's 299792458 m/s and in air it's 299702547 m/s.

[@SlavTiger]

I like that the errors have typos

[@hannessetterwall7373]

I would love to see more how they use wireless power transfer, what are the losses, would it be possible to use dual power transfer and get sphere lidar?

[@jugalmistry1726]

Using servos or encoder could give more precision for a perfect 90° or 180° turn.

[@AmplifierWorld]

This is new subject for me and I learn lots of from your channel and in the ending of your video when you say stray creative and see you next time. so goooood

[@yinanliu6700]

so many thanks to bring this innovative electronic component to me!!

[@electronic7979]

Very nice project 👍 I like it

[@IvanVoras]

I read somewhere that the main reason LIDARs are not used everywhere (e.g. all self-driving cards) is that having multiple devices (e.g. multiple cars) near each other results in cross-readings and interference. Can you comment on this?

[@fernando.v]

Thanks for the subscription to elektor

[@budandbean1]

“We feel like we are in “The Matrix”.” Now that was pretty funny!

[@UberAlphaSirus]

€£$80, not bad for 0.5mm 2Mt resolution, good enough to scan a small room for quotes. Back in the day, it would have been awesome to measure bay windows for tracks.

[@apostolosgeorgiadis3670]

Your next video should be... Robot vaccum cleaner diy or buy. You are a great T E A C H E R!

[@funy0n583]

where has this video been my whole life

[@StaticVapour590]

Very interesting to see how it works

[@borayurt66]

Nice project. The lidar sensor sells for $100 at AliExpress.

[@dvsujan1148]

Finally your sponsor has changed after a long time

[@y__h]

I wonder whether the last one gave him a hard time.

[@clonkex]

In all likelihood it's only for this video.

[@thebosss435]

heeey, the Arduino pro mini 3.3v has a raw pin it's a voltage regulator to 3.3v

[@andreib302]

Haha the robot turned out so cool. Great work.

[@sarfarazsheikh5448]

One's again thank you for useful information about electronics

[@teknoman117]

That LIDAR looks like a clone of the ones used in the Neato XV series vacuum cleaners for the last decade.

[@Y100001]

Excellent presentation, audio & visual.

[@anycatdessai]

Interesting the way the lidar module was built. Wireless power transfer in this small unit.

[@mhemedabaza6102]

Hi Scott please can you make a circuit that can drive a 3 phase synchrom motor from a battery and can also regenerate energy to charge the battery.

[@mellonhead4482]

Pick up a Neato robot vac off EBAY ,,, has a LIDAR module and other parts to use.

[@UNITEDHVACSYSTEMS]

Great innovative ideas generate after watching ur videos and can understand the theory which we learnt in schooling

[@FreeCircuitLab]

Really you are awesome!

[@ScitiveX]

LIDAR great - I was waiting for this video

[@iam726246]

Hello!. Help please. What kind of technology would you recommend me to study to be able to detect human precense in a room and prevent a robot arm from hitting humans, and after recognizing the human dimensions and position, changing its trajectory until it reaches its final destination. I was thinking about tensorflow, however I need something more three-dimensional. Thank you!

[@dinesh8238]

You can perfect self-driving using compass sensor & IR speed sensor

[@ryangrainger6271]

Look into switching to the Adafruit Trinket M0 for a 3.3V Arduino, much more capable and works with the Arduino IDE

[@crapcopter]

I might upgrade my old roomba with this

[@MkmeOrg]

Always wanted to give LIDAR a try. Great video and thanks!

[@ameliabuns4058]

I wonder if they could've used some sort of spring loaded ball bearing pins to transfer data in circles?

[@R3MIXMODZ]

Wow this is one of my favorite videos! You did a fantastic job explaining. Thank you!

[@samda7109]

Wirklich interessant. Ich hab dafür bisher Ultraschall verwendet, was ziemlich lange Reaktionszeit hat.

[@alejandromartinez-vp4sx]

Thanks for the video. However, if v stands for the velocity vector, consider using |v| as the magnitude of v instead of v itself.

[@wesleymays1931]

Or even better, to avoid confusion involving absolutes of scalars (|x|) you could use ||v||. That's how I show magnitude of a vector on paper. (Rambling here, and most likely completely unrelated) For a redstone circuit in Minecraft capable of processing vectors with Microcode, I'd imagine that a good way to find the magnitude of a vector would be to get the dot product of it with itself (x^2 + y^2) and then get the square root of that. Both steps should be quick, since any good vector processor has a hardware multiplier and square root extractor.

[@alejandromartinez-vp4sx]

@@wesleymays1931 Yes, you're right.

[@marcellosdmf]

Os melhores vídeos de eletrônica!!! I'm great fã yours Scott

[@enginsci8307]

I was expecting to see LIDAR in your " DIY or Buy " videos that will be far amazing

[@dangthanhthienan]

Yupppp. Do it, please, Chris!

[@kocakushh]

Engin sci you can try it yourself. Pick an hc-sr04, nrf24l01 and an Arduino pro mini. Put all to a base and try to make yourself. I had printed a base for hc-sr04 and put 4 lines on the circumferance. 4 brushes to the lines. A step motor (byj 48) for driving the base. At the end I got a basic lidar as cheap as a few euros. It does the job, I can manage to get the correct angles.

[@peerappel2012]

hey, you should check out makerbeam! Those profiles with all accesoires might safe you a lot of time when building an easy robot or frame for something... So that you wouldnt have too spend one hour to make a little car :-)

[@abboberg987]

Great Elektor offer! Even in Dutch. Thanx! Love your video's too

[@Metroid1890]

Hey Scott, how can I properly build an overcharge and undercharge protection for a 24V or higher battery?

[@maciekgucma4756]

Great Scott! Good job. I used large lidars and this one seems so similar! But smaller.

[@gabedarrett1301]

This is probably a dumb question since I never took electrical engineering but why didn't you use a voltage divider to reduce the voltage from 5 to 3.3 volts? Does it reduce efficiency because it releases too much heat? If that's true, why use voltage dividers at all?

[@foobarmaximus3506]

3.3Volt inputs are fine for TTL level monitoring devices. No need to up-convert the voltage. Right? Right.

[@mukeshsonawane8351]

Make a full video about is to make a fully automated vaccume cleaners

[@desmond-hawkins]

$80 for a small LIDAR module with a range of 10m is pretty amazing!

[@Brutaltronics]

Hey it's pretty cool that we have these modules available for DIYs but why is it sending so many distance and data errors?

[@rickseiden1]

What is that robot kit you used? Can you post a link to that, please?

[@michaegi4717]

I really like your videos, but this time there was a major flaw. The showed LIDAR do not use the time of flight for distance measuring. As stated in the documentation it is doing triangulation. So it is a kind of camera that search the laser beam. The postition in the image gives the angle and this is the needed information for triangulation.

[@Tom-em3dv]

0:50 that spinning lidar is like a radar basically

[@Pit.Gutzmann]

This was very instructive. Thank you!

[@Sites_rolla]

@great scott we can say also for this sensor used as radar , or only for this you do?

[@handmadeisbetter]

Very interesting, if the lidar wouldn't be so expensive! But nevertheless a cool little project :)

[@DieBastler1234]

It's ~100€

[@ChrisD__]

@@DieBastler1234 That's more than I spent on my computer...

[@_MisterG]

Thank you (and Elektor) for the subscription