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THE LIDAR

A Richbeam LakiBeam1 planar laser scanner on top of the car. It connects to the Jetson through the OSCORE board.

The LakiBeam L1 spinning LiDAR unit with its mounting screw and cable

LakiBeam L1 LiDAR

The scanner is an off-the-shelf Richbeam LakiBeam1. For raw datasheet numbers, visit the Richbeam LakiBeam product page.

Scan rate30 Hz (max)

Horizontal FOV270°

Angular resolution0.25° native

Range≥25 m @ 90%, ≥15 m @ 10%

Range accuracy±2 cm

Samples per scan~1440 per revolution

Laser wavelength940 nm (Class 1, eye-safe)

Dimensions60 × 60 × 80 mm

Range principleTOF

Operating voltage9V to 36V

Power consumption≤2W

THE SCAN LAYOUT

A scan is one flat list of distances. Index 0 points straight ahead, and the rest of the list goes clockwise from there. To read a direction, turn the angle into an index using the helpers below, or call racecar_utils.get_lidar_average_distance.

FIG. A / COORDINATE FRAME

The scan array starts at index 0 (forward) and rotates clockwise. The rear arc (around 180°) is occluded by the chassis and returns 0.

python
scan = rc.lidar.get_samples()          # ~1440 floats on the car
print(len(scan))                       # use this, never a hardcoded count
print(scan[0])                         # cm, straight forward
print(scan[len(scan) // 4])            # cm, 90° right on any platform

# For any other direction, let the helper do the index math:
left  = racecar_utils.get_lidar_average_distance(scan, 270, window_angle=8)  # 90° left
front = racecar_utils.get_lidar_average_distance(scan, 0,   window_angle=4)

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