Glossary · Hardware
LIDAR
In brief
LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a sensor that measures distance by timing reflected laser pulses. On a humanoid, a small spinning or solid-state LIDAR provides a 3D point cloud of the surroundings, used for mapping, obstacle avoidance, and SLAM.
LIDAR vs. depth-camera-only is a real architectural choice. LIDAR is robust to lighting changes, gives accurate range at distance, and provides clean geometry for mapping — but it is heavier, more expensive, and less detailed than stereo depth at close range.
Most industrial humanoids carry both: LIDAR for mid-range mapping and obstacle avoidance, plus stereo / structured-light depth cameras for close manipulation. Pure-vision approaches (Tesla's Optimus camp) skip LIDAR entirely and lean on neural-network-based depth estimation.
Related terms
See it in the wild
Browse robots and brands using these techniques
Glossary entries are upstream. The catalog is where the implementations live.