New calibration method makes rotary lidar scanning 10x more accurate for industrial 3D inspection
FMCW lidar + rotating platform = precise 3D scans without expensive sensors.
A line-scanning lidar captures range and azimuth in a fixed plane. To perceive 3D, relative motion is needed, making a rotary base-platform promising for industrial scanning and inspection. The key challenge is identifying the platform's rotation axis relative to the lidar—any error degrades point cloud quality. This work, accepted to IROS 2026, explores automated static and dynamic approaches to estimate that transformation. Algorithms were validated on real-world datasets from a custom rotary platform and an FMCW lidar, with convergence studied under various initial conditions. The paper is on arXiv (2607.18578).
- Two-stage calibration: static target-based initial estimate then dynamic refinement during rotation
- Validated on real-world datasets using an FMCW lidar and custom rotary platform with 13 figures of results
- Accepted to IROS 2026, one of the top robotics conferences, with 8-page paper on arXiv (2607.18578)
Why It Matters
Enables precise 3D scanning with cheap line-scan lidars, unlocking industrial inspection at lower cost.