Accuracy Assessment of Low-Cost Lidar Scanners: An Analysis of the Velodyne HDL–32E and Livox Mid–40’s Temporal Stability Remote Sensing

Identifying and mitigating sources of measurement error is a critical task in geomatics research and the geospatial industry as a whole. In pursuit of such error, accuracy assessments of lidar data have revealed a range bias in low-cost scanners. This phenomenon is a temporally correlated instability in the lidar scanner where the measured distance between target and sensor changes over time while both are held stationary. This research presents an assessment of two low-cost lidar scanners, the Velodyne® HDL–32E and Livox® Mid–40, in which their temporal stability is analyzed and methods to mitigate systematic error are implemented. By immobilizing each scanner as it observes a stationary target surface over the course of multiple hours, trends in scanner precision are identified. Scanner accuracy is then determined using a terrestrial lidar scanner, the Riegl® VZ-400, to observe both subject scanner and target, and extracting the distances between scanner origin and observed surface. Patterns identified in each scanner’s distance measurements indicate temporal autocorrelation, and, by exploiting the high linear correlation between scanner internal temperature and measured distance in the HDL–32E, it is possible to mitigate the resulting error. Application of the proposed solution lowers the Velodyne® scanner’s measurement RMSE by over 60%, providing levels of measurement accuracy comparable to more expensive lidar systems. Grant no. NA18NOS4000198