Hokuyo URG LIDAR Drivers Integrated into National Instruments LabVIEW Robotics Software

MOTION CONTROL:  Hokuyo Automatic Co. Ltd. Recently announced that National Instruments has integrated drivers for Hokuyo’s URG Laser Range Finders (or known as LIDAR) as a standard feature for the newly released NI LabVIEW Robotics 2009 software.

Hokuyo’s URG sensors have been recognized as the smallest laser range finders available on the market and are suitable for small robotics platforms. Since released in 2004, the URG-04LX has been widely used in robotics research laboratories around the world. Currently more than half a dozen of models are available to handle various needs of robotic researchers.

Integration of Hokuyo’s URG drivers in LabVIEW Robotics creates an ideal environment for developing advanced applications and algorithms based on laser range finders such as intelligent navigation, 3-D mapping, path planning and collision avoidance. The graphical programming of LabVIEW combined with the easy-to-use SCIP 2.0 communications protocol for Hokuyo’s URG family of laser range finders delivers a fast-track solution for developing intelligent robotic systems.

- Edited by Liz Taurasi