laser scanner or depth camera
what is an affordable (good enough quality) laser scanner or depth camera (to support navigation, path planning, and obstacle avoidance)? we plan to buy a few hundred units.
currently, we're using kinect for our prototype. did anyone use kinect for final product? would microsoft sell a few hundred kinects at a time at bulk pricing?
or is there an alternative product ou there that is more suitable for mass production vs prototyping?
any recommendation is much appreciated
Define affordable and your requirements (e.g. 2D vs. 3D). From a research perspective the smallest Hokuyo around $1000 is very affordable and considered cheap and that's only 2D data. If you think Kinect is already too much, you might need to go down with your expectations.
My feeling says that lasers are usually more expensive than (depth) cameras. If those are still too much, maybe look into some other sensor modalities.