You know, I think we need a lot more Raspberry Pi LiDAR projects. Granted, I've never worked with a LiDAR scanner before, so I have no idea how hard it is to wire one up to a Raspberry Pi. All I know is, whenever someone does manage it, the project they make is usually really cool, and I want to see more of them. The last time I saw one was back in April, when someone made a LiDAR scanner project which I really liked the look of.

Well, there's good news for people who want to try making one of these projects at home. Someone has uploaded the schematics and code for their project called RoomMapper. And it pretty much does exactly what you'd imagine a project called that would do.

RoomMapper combines a Raspberry Pi with a LiDAR scanner to scan your room

In a post over on Hackster.io, tinkerer Ahmad Tasika showed off what they're working on. They constructed a LiDAR scanner called the RoomMapper that can grab the dimensions of a room, and even uploaded everything they did to their Hackster page. The project asks for a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and a Seeed Studio RPLidar, which is a really interesting way to learn that Seeed Studio released a LiDAR.

Here's everything that Ahmad claims the RoomMapper can do, plus some ways you can use it:

Project function

• 360° Rotational Scanning: Uses RPLidar sensor to scan the entire room perimeter and collect real-time distance data (point cloud)
• Floor Plan Generation: Converts raw point data into 2D floor plans showing room shape
• Automatic Dimension Calculation: Calculates length, width, and total area based on generated maps
• Data Storage & Display: Saves floor plans and dimensions as images or data files on Raspberry Pi
• Simple User Interfac

Application Scenarios:

• Quick floor plan creation for property valuation
• Accurate space measurement for construction materials
• Furniture layout and interior design planning
• DIY robotics and indoor navigation projects

If you want to make one for yourself, head over to the Hackaday.io page linked above for the full run-down. It includes all the hardware used, the instructions on how to put everything together, and the code you need to get it all running properly. And if this seems a little too complicated for you, why not try these Raspberry Pi projects that made our smart home even smarter instead? That way, you can get yourself working with simpler hardware before shelling out on a LiDAR scanner.