<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal">Light Imaging Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) systems were first utilized in aerospace applications in the 1960’s and later employed by NASA as an improvement on radar systems that could not develop high resolution images. LIDAR systems generate point cloud imagery by using laser beams to measure distance to a surface and then combine thousands of points to create a three-dimensional (3-D) image. Since early adaptations of the technology, LIDAR is now common in aerial and sub-terranean geographical surveying and autonomous vehicle operations. The transportation industry uses LIDAR to monitor roadway quality, which can allow hazardous roadway corrosion to be spotted and repaired before endangering drivers. The leading issue with LIDAR availability is the respectively steep price point for effective systems, therefore preventing widespread usage. Developing an inexpensive, efficient, portable, and simple LIDAR device will benefit society. Previous work at the authors’ university in this area involved an initial design that generated high-resolution 3-D imagery but was faulted by limited portability and a long run-time. A second design built upon the initial work by creating a more mobile system with greater processing power but failed to create accurate data and was difficult to use due to issues with gimbal translation and bugs in the C++ programming code.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal">This effort revisits these previous efforts and implements new hardware and software to increase usability while offering multiple levels of resolution. This design combines a new touchscreen Graphical User Interface (GUI) with an existing rangefinder (Garmin LIDAR-Lite v3HP) that is powered by Raspberry Pi 4 Model B hardware. The rangefinder is housed in a 3-D printed gimbal mount that translates via two stepper motors (28BYJ-48 Small Reduction Stepper Motor) and driver board (Qunqi L298N). The system runs via a new Python script that allows the user to select varying levels of resolution on the GUI prior to data collection. Like the previous two designs, data output is in Cartesian coordinates through a .xyz file format with a MATLAB script used to create a point cloud and two-dimensional image with a depth gradient. This design allows files to be saved onto a Secure Digital flash drive for simple transportation of data. This system can be used as a stationary device that can create 3-D imagery to monitor roadway corrosion or non-commercial use while accessible at a reasonable price point. Overall, this design process created a more efficient, easier to use, and higher accuracy LIDAR system that offers various resolution levels for under the cost of $500.</p>

Design of an Efficient, Low-Cost, Stationary LiDAR System for Roadway Condition Monitoring

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.