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Velodyne LiDAR Puck (VLP-16)

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Author: Tristan Brodeur Email: [email protected] Date: Last modified on 12/29/16 Keywords: LiDAR, Velodyne, Puck

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Overview

This tutorial covers the setup and laser-scan capture of the Velodyne Puck.

The VLP-16 creates 360 degree, 3D images by using laser/detector pairs that fire ~300,000 times/sec.

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Motivation and Audience

This tutorial's motivation is to detail the setup of the Velodyne VLP-16 and run Velodyne's visualization software VeloView to visualize the scan data. The Velodyne Puck provides high-accuracy, extended distance sensing, and calibrated reflectivity data.

The rest of this tutorial is presented as follows:

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Velodyne Puck VLP-16 Specifications

  • Sensor Data

  • Mechanical/Electrical Specifications

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Basic Setup

The Velodyne Puck comes packaged with all of the necessary components.

Begin by removing the LiDAR sensor from the silk bag. The sensor itself is connected directly to the interface box. Make sure not to touch the polycarbonate lens on the sensor to avoid leaving fingerprints.

After placing both the LiDAR sensor and the interface box on a flat surface for testing, plug in the provided power supply cable into a power outlet and the 2.1 mm barrel plug jack into the interface box. From there, you should see a green led light up indicating that it's powered.Note: The VLP-16 does not have a power switch. It spins/operates 5 seconds after power has been applied. Next, plug one end of the Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port in the interface box and the other end into any standard computer's Ethernet port. Note: The IP address for each VLP-16 is set at the factory to 192.168.1.201. This can be changed withtin the WebServer GUI.

From there, you are ready to begin scanning and delivery of data.

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VeloView

Velodyne provides their own visualization software, VeloView, with all of their LiDAR sensors. VeloView reads the packets coming from the VLP-16 and performs calculations to determine point locations.

To install, plug in the included USB stick into your computer's USB port and install the executable onto your PC. (The VeloView software can also be cloned from the corresponding Github repository: https://github.com/Kitware/VeloView). An install wizard will show up and walk you through the licensing agreements, install directory, etc.

Once it's installed, run the VeloView application. You will be greeted with the GUI shown below.

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velodyne_puck.txt · Last modified: 2017/06/12 17:51 by tbrodeur