Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Imagine a fragile house of cards sitting on a table. Now imagine a robot I built, equipped with a LiDAR sensor, driving at full speed directly toward it. If I have done everything correctly, it should stop before it hits the cards and back up safely. But first, do you remember last time, when we explored the basics of LiDAR and how it sees the world in 360 degrees? Today, I want to actually build something with it. I want my XRP robot to map its surroundings, avoid obstacles, and maybe even warn me when I am getting too close.

Related Link:
digikey.com/en/maker/projects/gamepad-controlled-xrp-robot-with-lidar-sensing/c63cf34b6600471fa04d57f6ce78395b

Links:
Introduction to LIDAR youtu.be/70gLms-Wvew?si=GHSusBi7KpT6OgFn
Taking the XRP to the next level youtu.be/H9ECqDVfJGw?si=a04yGkGe22O0jx-a

Learn more:
Download all design files for this project from the github repo github.com/bytesizedengineering/XRP-RPLIDAR
Maker.io - digikey.com/en/maker
DigiKey’s Blog – TheCircuit digikey.com/en/blog
Connect with DigiKey on Facebook facebook.com/digikey.electronics
And follow us on X https://x.com/digikey
Watch more byte sized engineering project videos youtube.com/bytesized

Chapters:
00:00 Let’s set the stakes
00:45 What’s the plan?
02:14 Where are the serial ports?
04:50 Parsing LIDAR data into readable packets
07:02 Using a game controller
09:08 First test drive and 3D printing an enclosure
10:14 Try not to run into things!
11:23 Don’t ever try to build a house of cards
12:44 It’s not even possible
13:22 Bring out the hot glue gun
13:51 Full throttle!