Point Cloud Characteristics

Point Cloud Characteristics
Livox LiDAR sensors are designed to detect and map their surrounding environments, providing users with detailed
information to support applications in ADAS, autonomous driving, robotics, security surveillance, and much more.

The FOV Coverage
The ﬁeld of view (FOV) of LiDAR sensors is the area in which target objects may be detected. However, not all target
objects in the FOV can be detected. For example:· If the reﬂected light is too weak to be detected, often as a result of the target distance being too far away from thesensor or the reﬂectivity of the target being too low.
· Within a limited period of time, only a fraction of the FOV can be illuminated by laser beams, which is related to thescanning pattern distribution. If the target object is not illuminated by the laser, it will not be detected.
By optimally designing the scanning method used for Livox LiDAR sensors, the fraction of FOV illuminated by laser beams
can be increased. This reduces the probability of miss-detection that results from the scanning pattern distribution.
Hence, here we use the FOV coverage to characterize the performance of the scanning method, which is deﬁned as thefraction of FOV illuminated by laser beams. Numerically, the FOV coverage (C) can be calculated with the following
formula:Fig. 1 An example showing the FOV and theilluminated and unilluminated areas in theFOV.

The unique scanning pattern of Livox LiDAR sensors andthe beneﬁts of non-repeating scanning patterns
The unique scanning trajectories and patterns of Livox LiDAR sensors are promising for many applications which require
high FOV coverage. These scanning trajectories do not repeat themselves during use, thus we often use the term “nonrepeating scanning patterns.” Compared with the common mechanical scanning methods applied in most LiDAR sensors
on the market, non-repeating scanning patterns oﬀer an FOV coverage that signiﬁcantly increases over time.
For example, in Fig. 2(a), due to non-repeating scanning patterns, the FOV coverage increases signiﬁcantly over time.
However, in Fig. 2(b), the FOV coverage is almost the same regardless of the integration time.

Fig. 2 Single frames and the related
superimposed frames in non-repeating
scanning regime (a) and repeat scanningregime (b).

Point Cloud Characteristics of Diﬀerent LiDAR Sensors
The FOV coverage of Livox LiDAR sensors, including the Mid, Horizon and Tele-15 series are shown in Fig. 3. It’s clear thatas integration time increases, the FOV coverage increases signiﬁcantly. After a certain period of time integration, the FOV
coverage will approach 100%. This indicates that almost the entire FOV is illuminated by the laser beams and almost alltargets within the FOV and detection range can be detected.
In Fig. 3 you can see the FOV coverage of other (non-Livox) LiDAR sensors that use common mechanical scanning
methods. For these sensors, the number of laser lines and vertical FOV are 64-lines-27°, 32-lines-41°, and 16-lines-30°.

Fig.3 The FOV coverage of Livox LiDAR
sensors, including Horizon, Tele-15, andMid-40; compared with other (non-Livox)
LiDAR sensors that used common
mechanical scanning methods, with linenumber and vertical FOV being 64 lines/27°,
32 lines/41°, 16 lines/30°. During
calculation, the FOV is gridded with5mrad*5mrad.

Compared with other LiDAR sensor units, the Mid-40, Horizon, and Tele-15 are outstanding with diﬀerent integration
times, and especially with long integration time.
· The Mid-40 is equivalent to the 32-line product when the integration time is 0.1s. With an integration time of 0.5s, thecoverage performance is equivalent to the 64-line product.
· The Horizon has similar coverage to the 64-line product with an integration time of 0.1s, and when the integration time
becomes longer, the coverage increases signiﬁcantly.
· The Tele-15 has much denser FOV coverage than any other LiDAR sensor shown here. The FOV coverage approaches to90% at an integration time of 0.1s.