RPLIDAR S1 360° Laser Scanner (40 m)

After doing an assessment of the best LIDAR in the Slamtech family for my unique application, and conversing many times with Slamtech engineering, I decided to purchase one S1 unit to test it out. I ultimately had to get it operational on an Arduino type platform, so understood there would be challenges, as the most current SDK for Arduino was from 2014! The engineers also warmed me about that though they pointed to their current Windows, Linus, etc. based SDKs. I struggled with their documentation and even basic interface program, as they omitted to explain basic steps like 'clink in the blank area on the left side of the screen below the word LIDAR and you will be able to select the COM port'. That one explanation took 4 days with a 24 hour response time due to working with folks in China. They did respond - and for this I thank them - but it was slow. After confirming it was operational I then moved to the Arduino code. This took many hours to piece together Arduino code, videos, forums, their SDKs, etc -but eventually I got it operating in my environment. The unit is very stable and once scanning it reports information at the given frequency (I was operating at 10hz). The measurements are pretty accurate (down to a few cm and I was operating within a tight environment for my test (2mx 2.5m). I even assessed the reflection quality of the unit based on four different stationary targets (wood dowel, chrome reflective tube, black reflective dowel and white round rubber target) all around the same diameter and distance. It was interesting to see the quality of the target change with these materials. Once this was under control, I then moved to my intended use. Unfortunately for the speed of my indented target - this S1 RPLIDAR is too slow. I am now back to the drawing board.

This is a great, small, and powerful 360 degree lidar. I've used it on a robot with ROS and created maps that are far better than the other Lidar units I have used. I was a little worried about the software aspect of it after reading some reviews but It wasn't bad. I was able to get the demo software up and running. I had to use a Windows computer so that was the downside there but took about 20 min for me to navigate their site and download a few things before i figured it out. I use a mac normally so the Windows requirement was the biggest hurdle. That was only required for the demo software. I use this unit with ROS and it was fairly simple to get going with this this repo: https://github.com/Slamtec/rplidar_ros . For me, the best part was the somewhat sealed design and the long range outdoors. I would have liked a water/dust rating on it but perhaps that will come in the next model. So far it's great. I will be buying another for another robot I'm building.

I really want to give this product a good review. When it's working, the speed and accuracy of the unit is great. We're using it regularly at the 20-30m range with good data. However, I've now had the 3rd unit fail in less than 12 months. Each time robotshop support has been great. I simply need better reliability and therefore, cannot recommend it.