OSDome laser ranging sensor

The OSDome is a hemispherical lidar sensor from Ouster with a 180 degree vertical field of view and a 360 degree horizontal field of view, so it covers a full dome from one mounting point. It is a short-range digital lidar for robots, vehicles, drones and security installations that need dense three-dimensional coverage close to the platform.

The sensor is built on Ouster's L3 chip. It is offered with 32, 64 or 128 vertical channels, and the horizontal resolution can be set to 512, 1024 or 2048 columns at 10 or 20 Hz rotation rate. Ouster describes a light sensor with dual-return output that helps mapping among small branches and wires, and calibrated reflectivity that helps separate dust and obscurants from real surfaces.

The main figures: range of 45 m at 80% Lambertian reflectivity and 20 m at 10% reflectivity, both measured in 100 klx sunlight with more than 90% detection probability. Minimum range is 0.5 m by default, with 0.3 m and 0.0 m options. Maximum output is about 5.2 million points per second (5,242,880 with 128 channels), at a frame rate up to 20 Hz. Range accuracy is plus or minus 2.5 cm on Lambertian targets, and angular resolution is up to 0.7 degrees. The laser is 865 nm, Class 1 eye-safe to IEC/EN 60825-1.

Environmental data matters for outdoor and airborne work. The operating temperature is -40 to +60 degrees C, with an automatic range reduction of up to 20% between 53 and 60 degrees C. Ingress protection is IP68 and IP69K with the I/O cable attached, and the sensor is tested to IEC 60068-2-27 shock (100 g) and IEC 60068-2-64 vibration (1 G-rms). Mean time to failure is above 250,000 hours. It weighs 470 g, has a diameter of 87 mm and a height of 85.27 mm without baseplate.

Integration is through gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T, or automotive 1000BASE-T1) carrying UDP packets for lidar and IMU data, with the IMU at 100 samples per second. Power input is 9.5 to 51 V, suited to 12 and 24 V systems, with 14 to 20 W consumption. Mounting is by four M3 screws and two locating pins on the bottom. Time synchronisation accepts PTP, gPTP, NMEA and external PPS, and the Ouster SDK, ROS and C++ drivers are available.

Typical uses are obstacle detection and near-range mapping on drones and mobile robots, people tracking and security analytics, and side-mounted sensing on industrial vehicles.