How does Lidar work?
1.
A typical lidar sensor emits pulsed light waves into the surrounding environment.
![Lidar-1](https://visimind.home.pl/autoinstalator/wordpress2/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Lidar-1.png)
2.
These pulses bounce off surrounding objects and return to the sensor.
![Lidar-2](https://visimind.home.pl/autoinstalator/wordpress2/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Lidar-2.png)
3.
The sensor uses the time it took for each pulse to return to the sensor to calculate the distance it traveled.
![Lidar-3](https://visimind.home.pl/autoinstalator/wordpress2/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Lidar-3.png)
Repeating this process millions of times per second creates a precise, real-time 3D map of the environment. This 3D map is called a point cloud. An onboard computer can utilize the lidar point cloud for safe navigation.