Next-Level LiDAR for Drones at  

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew talks with Jay Shears at Emesent about the company’s new Hovermap LiDAR technology. The hardware is an integrated, rotating LiDAR sensor capable of capturing 3D data in a 360 degree by 360 degree pattern, as well as a self-contained base station to power the sensor and store the resulting data. This unit can be mounted on a drone, or used in a handheld or backpack-mounted configuration. When attached to an advanced drone, such as the DJI M300, the unit is capable of providing data in real-time to the flight control system to allow for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) capabilities. This allows the drone to operate autonomously in complex, GPS-denied environments, such as a mine or a cave.