Servo - September 2017

LIDAR is a way to use light to measure distance. The term was originally a portmanteau of light and radar, but has since been “backronymed” to Light Imaging, Detection, and Ranging or LIght Detection And Ranging. Believe it or not, the technology originated shortly after the invention of lasers, and has been used to map the surface of the moon during Apollo, help robots avoid running into obstacles, and create models of objects and nature for scientists.

Like all technology, the price of instruments has come down with time. While still expensive, they became affordable for street mapping vehicles, self-driving cars, and eventually for land surveying. The Sweep is an effort at bringing the price point of a basic LIDAR to the consumer/hobbyist level.

The Sweep launched on Kickstarter where I initially backed it, thinking it would be a fun exercise to play with for mapping. As a caver, I’ve experimented with both laser and ultrasonic mapping of caves in the past with mixed results. I was especially excited when Scanse announced a 3D scanner kit for the Sweep, and they agreed to send me one of the first production units to try out.

This month, we’ll go through the kit assembly process, install the software, and take a few scans. I tested the scanner indoors as well as outdoors to really get a feel for how it performs in a variety of environments.

I also verified the accuracy of measurements by comparing the Sweep’s measurements to actual measurements of rooms in my home.

Unboxing

The kit arrived in a surprisingly large box, but the extra space was used to pack everything very well. The Sweep sensor itself is in a very nice professionally printed box with foam cutouts. It comes with a connector and USB interface. Standing alone, the Sweep sensor (Figure 1) will produce 2D scans of a space. Playing with it in my office, I was able to determine how full each shelf of books was on a bookcase a few meters away. What I was especially excited for was getting the scanner assembled and producing some 3D maps of spaces! The Scanner kit consists of some breakout PCBs (printed circuit boards) from Adafruit, USB cables, a stepper motor, micro switch, SD card, and some hardware (Figure 2). There is also a Raspberry Pi with a USB battery (Figure 3), and three 3D printed enclosure components (Figure 4).

The

Multi-Rotor

Hobbyist

Scanse Sweep 3D Scanner Review

By John Leeman

Lasers and robots — how any good project, story, or article begins. I recently got the chance to try out the Scanse Sweep and their 3D scanning kit. The Sweep puts the power of LIDAR in your hands. Applications range from obstacle avoidance to mapping of new areas. We’ll assemble this brand new kit and take some scans in a variety of environments to see how this affordable sensor stacks up.

To post comments on this article and find any associated files and/or downloads, go to www.servomagazine.com/index.php/ magazine/issue/2017/09.

Figure 1: The Sweep sensor itself is a nice compact unit that scans a laser range finder through a full circle, returning range and bearing information.

Figure 2: The components packages for the kit are nicely grouped and well packed. There are a lot of components in a complex electromechanical kit like the Sweep 3D scanner.