How to pick the long distance sensor?

[laoadam]

Hi,
I'm prepare to build a Load Lift Drone of about 5 KG and with avoid obstacles function, checked there are few types of long distance sensor, listed as:

1. Ultrasound: short distance, light weight, low cost, easy to use
2. Laser: long distance , heavy, high cost,
3. Radar: mid distance, light weight, low cost

any one have used 24GHz radar sensor on Drone? is it OK?
Thanks
Adam

 

[wafflejock]

There's also now the option of using a regular camera sensor and software to do optical flow analysis to see what direction the camera is drifting and other computer vision techniques (opencv is older open source collection of libraries for image analysis, also lots of machine learning based things are very good at image recognition I played with the open source darknet a few years back but sure there are even more advanced options now). Just to add a couple more to the list GPS, compass, barometer all good for navigation as well especially if you know the tallest structure in the are is x meters can just go above that (assuming still below legal limit) and not really need to dodge much.

See skydio for an example of using just computer vision for local object avoidance and tracking though think what they are doing is super impressive.

Only thing I'd note about mounting any sensor on a quad is it will need sufficient vibration dampening and will need to be able to deal with the drift introduced by wind and other external forces on the quad constantly moving it around.