I'm working on a robot to mix cocktails, and would like a LIDAR unit to help with the bottle locating. So far all the ones I've looked at (mainly Hokuyo) have been $2k+. Does anyone know of a lidar unit that's in the $200-$500 range? Willing to shell out a bit for this, but two grand is a little steep.
In terms of accuracy I only need millimeter (not sub millimeter) accuracy, and a range of just a meter or two would be totally fine.