3. Sensor-specific applications

3.1 Laser rangefinders

The most commonly used sensor for navigation and cartography is the scanning laser rangefinder. This type of sensor measures the distance to obstacles, usually on a horizontal plane. Current models can measure distances every half-degree, with an aperture angle of 180° to 360° and a range of several tens of meters, with a noise level of just a few centimeters. Mapping with this type of sensor is now mature and reliable for indoor environments down to a few hundred square meters. These approaches will have their limits if large areas are too uniform (very large empty spaces, for example) or if the environment contains loops of too great a size, but will work very well in a conventional home. Rangefinders are still relatively expensive, but lower-cost, lower-performance...