3D mapping drone fires lasers from a mile away (video)

The MIT Technology Review has unearthed a new laser-based 3D mapping robot that can produce results similar to those obtained from $100,000 systems at about a fifth of the cost. Funded by the US Army, researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology have now demonstrated the Remotely Operated and Autonomous Mapping System (ROAMS, for short), which employs a mirror-based LIDAR system that bounces a laser off a rapidly rotating mirror and gleans environmental information from how long it takes for each pulse to bounce back. An array of video cameras and IR proximity sensors add to this recon bot's sentience, though you'll still need to be within a mile's range to operate it. So not quite yet ready for solo missions to Mars, but plenty useful for gathering data on our own planet. You'll find video and imagery of the results this machine kicks out after the break.

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[allenvanhellen Posted Nov 18th 2009 7:00AM]

So we can make everything look like Radiohead's «House of Cards»?

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2009 7:08PM]

Amazing song,

[BigSarge Posted Nov 18th 2009 7:09AM]

PEW PEW!

[markyb Posted Nov 18th 2009 7:54AM]

Why does the scan of that person make him look handicapped?

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2009 8:06AM]

Cause to robots, all fleshbags are handicapped.
also that house looks like cs_estate.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2009 8:26AM]

This isn't something that was just unearthed. This isn't even anything new.... People have been doing this exact same thing for years. The "bouncing lasers off of mirrors" is done by a commercial SICK laser, what's novel about any of this thing?

[amneziac Posted Nov 18th 2009 11:53AM]

blah blah blah. Well I for one enjoyed reading it.

[maveric101 Posted Nov 18th 2009 1:01PM]

yeah it's the same as the DARPA challenge except they used generally fewer sensors and a smaller vehicle.

[KAL326 Posted Nov 18th 2009 8:30AM]

Great, this thing is perfect for when Skynet wants to go site seeing.

[harrykim23 Posted Nov 18th 2009 9:09AM]

Seen is before... on TV... Stargate, anyone? *lol*

[cardfan Posted Nov 18th 2009 11:21AM]

Yep, we're good to go if we can just find that stargate..

[Kid Red Posted Nov 18th 2009 9:24AM]

I don't see the laser canon?

[RogueGenius Posted Nov 18th 2009 2:02PM]

Nobody mentioned anything about a "cannon". Firing a laser doesn't require a gun. This is like sonar, except with beams of light instead of sound waves. They bounce back, the drone calculates shapes based on the time it takes for each beam to return. The laser takes pictures.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2009 10:54AM]

This would be awesome for video gaming. You can actually be an interactive characters within games.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2009 12:22PM]

Wow... totally not new. 3D scanning with SICK LIDAR is at least 5-6 years old. There are many techniques to moving the SICK scanner while registering the data with other sensors (namely cameras). Every DARPA Grand Challenge (and Urban Challenge) team did or tried to implement such system. It even appears most of this data was post-processed and the maps weren't built up in real-time, which is really challenging part. The technology is none-the-less cool and useful, but nothing about it is new or novel.

[BigD145 Posted Nov 18th 2009 1:43PM]

Dey turk our jerbs!

[Shadyman Posted Nov 21st 2009 12:36AM]

An dey turk our gud speelings!

[Special Agent Steve Posted Nov 18th 2009 4:41PM]

I know whats going to be in Modern Warfare 3.

[l3reak Posted Nov 19th 2009 12:19AM]

Imagine if Google bought one of these and it became the new google maps trike for mapping street view areas? If they overlayed this data with their street view, I wonder if they could make a simple interactive 3d map?