LiDARiks

LiDARiks is a hypothetical, open-source framework intended to standardize the collection, fusion, and processing of LiDAR point cloud data from multiple sensors. It aims to provide a common data model, modular processing pipeline, and interoperable interfaces for autonomous systems, robotics, and surveying.

The core architecture consists of sensor adapters to ingest data from different LiDAR brands and models, a central point cloud data model that stores coordinates, intensity, timestamp, and metadata, and a fusion and synchronization layer that aligns streams in time and space using calibration data.

The processing pipeline includes preprocessing (denoising, downsampling), registration and SLAM, feature extraction, segmentation, object detection, and map construction. It emphasizes real-time performance and can operate on edge devices or in cloud backends. It supports multi-sensor fusion to enhance coverage and robustness.

LiDARiks is designed for interoperability with common robotics and mapping ecosystems and can export lineage and provenance metadata. It is compatible with ROS 2, PCL, and standard formats such as LAS/LAZ, while offering a reference Python and C++ API.

The project is in active development, with governance by an open community and published reference implementations under an open-source license. Real-world deployment experiences, benchmarks, and broader adoption are ongoing topics.

See also: LiDAR, point cloud, SLAM, ROS, PCL, 3D mapping.