LiDAR API Documentation

This document is on DRAFT stage!

This description covers all possibilities to work with the following sensors.

• multiScan100 family
• picoScan100 family

... you have your sensor on hand: Kick start here 🚀

Table of content

• Table of content
• Introduction
• General information
  • Drivers and SDKs
  • Examples
  • Default IP address
• Measurement Data Streaming - Comparison and choice
• Device configuration - Comparison and choice
• Getting started to work with a sensor
  • 0️⃣ Prerequisites
  • 1️⃣ See scan data on sensor web server
  • 2️⃣ Decide how you want to work with the device
• FAQ & Glossary

Introduction

The LiDAR API documentation differentiates between two communication concepts. For both cases there are multiple ways to work with the sensor.

1. Receive event-driven measurement data streaming

• Compact
• MSGPACK
• WebSocket

Communication concept of measurement data streaming:

sequenceDiagram
    client->>sensor: enable measurement data streaming
    sensor-->>client: acknowledge measurement data streaming
    client->>sensor: measurement data packet [0]
    client->>sensor: measurement data packet [1]
    client->>sensor: measurement data packet [...]

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2. Read or write sensor parameters

• REST
• CoLa A
• CoLa B

Communication concept of sensor configuration:

sequenceDiagram
    client->>sensor: set parameter1
    sensor-->>client: acknowledge parameter1
    client->>sensor: set parameter2
    sensor-->>client: acknowledge parameter2
    client->>sensor: ...

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General information

Drivers and SDKs

For complete drivers instead of single telegrams, the following options are available:

• ROS drivers
• ROS2 drivers
• Python drivers
• C++ drivers

Examples

All available examples can be found here.

Default IP address

The default IP address for the sensors (if not specified different is 192.168.0.1)

Measurement Data Streaming - Comparison and choice

	Transport Layer	Port	Advantages	Bandwidth factor
Compact	UDP	default is port 2115	- smallest traffic - best fit for PLCs	1
MSGPACK	UDP	default is port 2115	- available libraries in almost all programming languages	~2
WebSocket	TCP	80	- uses port 80 which is open in most circumstances - good for low output frequencies - uses JSON structure	~3

Device configuration - Comparison and choice

	Transport Layer	Port	When to use what
REST	TCP	80	- if you only want to read data - if your system can handle a challenge and response process
CoLa A	TCP	default is port 2111	- if your system cannot handle a challenge and response process
CoLa B	TCP	default is port 2112	- if your system cannot handle a challenge and response process - it is the best fit for PLCs.

Getting started to work with a sensor

0️⃣ Prerequisites

✔️ SICK sensor (e.g. multiScan100)

✔️ Power cable

✔️ Ethernet cable to connect the sensor to your system

1️⃣ See scan data on sensor web server

• Power the sensor
• Connect the sensor to your system. (FAQ: I can not connect to my sensor? Any ideas?)
• Open the sensor web browser (default ip address: http://192.168.0.1/)

2️⃣ Decide how you want to work with the device

• Case 1: You want to test the device and change some settings with the given web browser.
  • You are ready to got and do not need any further actions.
• Case 2: You want to integrate the device into a ROS environement (ROS / ROS2)
  • Please refer to our ROS drivers.
• Case 3: You want to use an existing driver (C++ or Python)
  • Please refer to our C++ / Python driver.
• Case 4: You want to build your own driver in specidic programming language.
  • Decide which measurement data straming approach you want you use. You can choose from these:
    • Compact Format via UDP
    • MSGPACK Format via UDP
    • ScanData via WebSockets
  • Decide which sensor configuration approach you want you use. You can choose from these:
    • HTTP/REST via TCP
    • CoLa via TCP

FAQ & Glossary