Characterization of the Sick LMS511-20100Pro Laser Range Finder for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

This paper presents a characterization of the Sick LMS511-20100Pro laser range finder. With high accuracy and good robustness, this range sensor is suitable for various mobile robotic applications both indoors and outdoors. However, very few studies concerning the performance characterization of the LMS511-20100Pro can be consulted for better understanding and utilizing this sensor in practice. Therefore, some factors that could influence the sensor performance, such as drift effect, target distance, angular resolution, target material and mixed pixel, were tested and further analyzed. The effect of target distance and material on intensity information was also investigated. All the performed experiments demonstrate that the performance of the LMS511-20100Pro exceeds the specified values and can meet the requirements of simultaneous localization and mapping, although its practical performance might be significantly affected by some certain factors.