Under the direction of Malcolm Stitch, the Hughes Aircraft Company introduced the first lidar-like system in 1961, shortly after the invention of the … See more

Mathematical formula
A lidar determines the distance of an object or a surface with the formula:
$${\displaystyle d={\frac {c\cdot t}{2}}}$$
where c is the See more

Airborne lidar (also airborne laser scanning) is when a laser scanner, while attached to an aircraft during flight, creates a 3-D point cloud model of the landscape. This is currently the most detailed and accurate method of creating digital elevation models See more

There are a wide variety of lidar applications, in addition to the applications listed below, as it is often mentioned in National lidar dataset programs. … See more

Based on orientation
Lidar can be oriented to nadir, zenith, or laterally. For example, lidar altimeters look down, an atmospheric lidar looks up, and lidar-based collision avoidance systems are side-looking.
Based on scanning … See more

Terrestrial applications of lidar (also terrestrial laser scanning) happen on the Earth's surface and can be either stationary or mobile. Stationary terrestrial scanning is most common as a survey method, for example in conventional topography, … See more

Computer stereo vision has shown promise as an alternative to lidar for close range applications. See more