Affordable LIDAR?

[cberner]

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.

[Th232]

Some people have taken apart the Neato XV-11 vacuum cleaner for its LIDAR and figured out how to talk to it and get readings.  Not exactly an out-of-the-box solution though.

[cberner]

Hmm, ya that's a little more effort than I want to go to. I'll look into it though, thanks!