Introducing RPLIDAR S1 - Portable TOF 360° Laser Range Scanner

RPLIDAR S1 is a new generation of pocket low-cost TOF laser radar developed by SLAMTEC. It has 9200 laser ranging sampling capabilities per second and uses non-contact energy and signal transmission technology to overcome life limit of the traditional laser scanner. The RPLIDAR S1 is reliable and stable for long periods of time.

RPLIDAR S1 – Portable TOF 360 Degree Laser Range Scanner

RPLIDAR S1 is an enhanced 2D laser ranging scanner that enables 360-degree laser ranging scanning in a 40-meter radius of a 2D plane and produces flat point cloud map information in the space. These cloud map information can be used in practical applications such as map mapping, robot positioning navigation, and object/environment modeling.

Compared with other series of laser scanner, RPLIDAR S1 is more stable in detecting long-distance objects and direct-light objects, can achieve ideal mapping effects within a 40-meter ranging radius for indoor and outdoor environments and is able to be expanded to more usage scenarios.

40-meter ranging radius for indoor and outdoor environments

The scanner frequency of RPLIDAR S1 is 10Hz (600rpm), and the scanner frequency can be arbitrarily adjusted within the range of 8-15Hz according to user’s requirements. At a scanner frequency of 10Hz, the sampling frequency of 9.2kHz can achieve an angular resolution of 0.391°.
Thanks to TOF ranging, the RPLIDAR S1 excels in a variety of indoor environments and in outdoor environments where direct sunlight is directly exposed. At the same time, each RPLIDAR S1 is rigorously tested to ensure that the laser power emitted meets the IEC-60825 Class 1 Laser Safety

System configuration and connection The RPLIDAR S1 primarily consists of laser ranging core and the power and the mechanical section that rotates the laser ranging core at high speed. During the normal operation, the ranging core will begin to scan clockwise. Users can obtain RPLIDAR scanning ranging data and control motor’s rotation speed through the RPLIDAR communication interface.

The RPLIDAR S1 has its own speed detection and adaptive system. The angular resolution of the scan is automatically adjusted with the actual rotation frequency. Users do not need to provide complex power supply system for the RPLIDAR S1, which reduces the overall costs. If you need to know the actual speed of the current scanner, the external system can obtain relevant data through the communication interface.
For specific power and communication interface information, please refer to Documents.

Working principle and instructions

The RPLIDAR S1 uses laser time-of-flight ranging technology, combined with the high-speed laser acquisition and processing mechanism developed by SLAMTEC, which can perform 9200 times per second. The RPLIDAR S1 will emit a modulated infrared laser signal during each ranging. The reflection of the laser signal after it has been illuminated by the target object will be received by the RPLIDAR S1 laser acquisition system and then solved in real time via a DSP processor embedded in the RPLIDAR S1.
The distance value of the illuminated target object from the RPLIDAR S1 and the current angle information will be output from the communication interface.

Driven by the motor mechanism, the RPLIDAR’s ranging core rotates clockwise for achieving 360-degree omni-directional ranging detection of the surrounding environment.

Application

RPLIDAR S1 is suitable for the following areas:

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM)
Environmental scanning and 3D reconstruction
Service robots and industrial fields that require long-term continuous work Navigation and positioning of home care/cleaning robots
Universal robot navigation and positioning
Intelligent toy positioning and obstacle detection

Development tools and support

To facilitate users’ development and accelerated development cycles with RPLIDAR S1, SLAMTEC offers Framegrabber plug-in for graphical debugging in the robot management and development software RoboStudio. In addition, the SDK development package is available for users running on x86 windows, x86 Linux, arm Linux and other platforms.