FPGA-based Architecture for a Low-Cost 3D Lidar Design and Implementation from Multiple Rotating 2D Lidars with ROS

Jorge Peña Queralta, Fu Yuhong, Lassi Salomaa, Li Qingqing, Tuan Nguyen Gia, Zhuo Zou, Hannu Tenhunen and Tomi Westerlund


Three-dimensional representations and maps are the key behind self-driving vehicles and many types of advanced autonomous robots. Localization and mapping algorithms can achieve much higher levels of accuracy with dense 3D point clouds. However, the cost of a multiple-channel three-dimensional lidar with a 360º field of view is at least ten times the cost of an equivalent single-channel two-dimensional lidar. Therefore, while 3D lidars have become an essential component of self-driving vehicles, their cost has limited their integration and penetration within smaller robots. We present an FPGA-based 3D lidar built with multiple inexpensive RPLidar A1 2D lidars, which are rotated via a servo motor and their signals combined with an FPGA board. A C++ package for the Robot Operating System (ROS) has been written, which publishes a 3D point cloud. The mapping of points from the two-dimensional lidar output to the three-dimensional point cloud is done at the FPGA level, as well as continuous calibration of the motor speed and lidar orientation based on a built-in landmark recognition. This inexpensive design opens a wider range of possibilities for lower-end and smaller autonomous robots, which can be able to produce three-dimensional world representations. We demonstrate the possibilities of our design by mapping different environments.

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