Find good reflector for 2D lidar

What material (commonly available or commercial) could be used as a good reflector for Sick Nanoscan3 family of lidars? I've tried for example common auto reflective tape, but the results are not good. Ideally it should give a clearly defined lidar outline, with good intensity, even if not perpendicular on the scan ray. I would like to mark for example the location of the docking station, to be able to locate it more easily.

Asked by vane on 2022-08-05 08:53:11 UTC

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Any matte white tape (ex: painter's tape) should do the trick. You don't want a reflective tape because it receives the laser beam from the LiDAR and disperses it, so the LiDAR has a hard time reading the return beam and calculating the ToF.

An other option would be to use some type marker (ArUco, ChArUco, Alvar) with a camera to locate the docking station using computer vision.

Asked by Alex-SSoM on 2022-08-05 10:04:19 UTC

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I'm looking for a material that is optimal for the lidar, in infrared. I've tested video markers, and localization precision is disappointing (I tested Aruco and Apriltag) with Intel D435 camera (a 15cm marker is detected precise enough in a range of lens then 1.5m, and the orientation detection is especially bad, even more so when the viewing angle is not perpendicular)

Asked by vane on 2022-08-05 11:39:28 UTC