Entry level Drone with LIDAR

[RCJC333]

I am the Local History Librarian with a public library in N.C. We have been conducting a cemetery survey of the African American cemeteries including slave cemeteries in our county. I was watching a documentary on TV that showed a drone being used with a LIDAR. Is there an entry level drone with LIDAR on the market? Has anyone tried to purchase a LIDAR scanner and a drone and put them together to create their own?

Thanks,
Joel

 

[GFields]

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!
They are not cheap. From what I have seen you're looking at a starting price point of $30k

 

[waynorth]

Maybe this article about LIDAR and drones can help you:

12 Top Lidar Sensors For UAVs, Best Lidar Drones And Great Uses - DroneZon

Latest lidar drones and top lidar sensors and technology reviewed from Velodyne, Routescene, Leddartech, Riegl and YellowScan, including best uses for drone lidar

www.dronezon.com

 

[Felix le Chat]

I am the Local History Librarian with a public library in N.C. We have been conducting a cemetery survey of the African American cemeteries including slave cemeteries in our county. I was watching a documentary on TV that showed a drone being used with a LIDAR. Is there an entry level drone with LIDAR on the market? Has anyone tried to purchase a LIDAR scanner and a drone and put them together to create their own?

Thanks,
Joel

You can get pretty close to lidar quality with standard camera mapping combined with SFM (Structure From Motion) This technique will also show up fine variances in topography. I imagine this is what you're looking for to map lost/unmarked burials. You can also identify features next to invisible at ground level if you fly at about 100' and choose light conditions that give strong oblique light (late golden hour evening or early golden hour morning)

 

[Droning on and on...]

Check this out... not anything that can be easily grafted on to our drones by the hobbyist, but it makes the point that lidar modules are getting compact and cheap enough to be incorporated into quality drones in the near future.

Would you pay an extra $300 for a Mavic 3 Pro that could give you accurate AGL up to 300 feet? I would.

LightWare SF11 100m LIDAR Range Sensor​

 

[Meta4]

Check this out... not anything that can be easily grafted on to our drones by the hobbyist, but it makes the point that lidar modules are getting compact and cheap enough to be incorporated into quality drones in the near future.

Would you pay an extra $300 for a Mavic 3 Pro that could give you accurate AGL up to 300 feet? I would.

​

The OP was asking about a Lidar scanner for mapping, but that product is a simple Lidar sensor that works much the same as our VPS sensors to provide AGL height data..
It couldn't be used for mapping.

 

[Droning on and on...]

The OP was asking about a Lidar scanner for mapping, but that product is a simple Lidar sensor that works much the same as our VPS sensors to provide AGL height data..
It couldn't be used for mapping.

Yes, understood.

Posted it for interests sake.

 

[IronSky1]

If anyone can create the software interface and power component my company will do the design and 3D print to mount on DJI drones as a service to community. I am not sure if there is open source commercial software to do the data display. This is something I have been wanting to do. 30k for a LIDAR drone is a bit pricy for my work.

Should work well with mod to many of our standard mounts (IronSky Mounts | eBay Stores)
MAVIC 1 2 3 Inspire 1/2 or Matrice series