Designing Purpose-Built Drones for Ardupilot Pixhawk 2.1

Mounting the module

The first step is deciding how you're going to mount your LIDAR. It should be pointed parallel to the ground (not up or down). If you are using a single sensor (as we are in this example), it should also be pointed straight ahead. If you're using several sensors, you want to place them in a way that they cover the whole area you wish the rover to see, but overlapping is not entirely necessary. The following diagram shows how we went about designing our sonar mounting option (we replaced the fender):

You can see that the diagram shows that the ground will overlap the pattern, so large rocks, roots, and fallen branches ...