Coming up from down under

Hovermap’s technology developed by Australia’s CSIRO enables RPAS CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) is Australia’s national research lab with wide ranging interests including robotics, agriculture, communications, mining, and much more. Their Robotics and Autonomous Systems group has developed Hovermap, which combines LiDAR and 360×360 degree sensor capabilities to capture and map surroundings. It was developed to be mounted as a payload to drones and eventually to be able to update collision avoidance algorithms to enable autonomy. Hovermap rotates below the drone, which enables it to map spherically, above, below, and around, with little occlusion from the drone’s airframe.