What matters in drone LiDAR
On a drone, payload is what decides; on the ground, handling. These are the criteria to compare:
- Weight: Every gram of sensor comes off payload and flight time. The mount, cables, on-board computer and positioning sensors add to it.
- Range at 10% reflectivity: Vegetation and dark ground reflect weakly. This figure, not the maximum, determines how high you can safely fly.
- Field of view: It sets the width of the strip the sensor captures on each flight line.
- Multiple echoes: If the sensor records several returns per laser pulse, points from the ground also come back through gaps in the vegetation — important for terrain and forestry surveys.
- Ruggedness: Dust, rain and temperature in the field; ingress protection and operating temperature belong on the checklist.
- Georeferencing: The LiDAR delivers points in its own coordinate frame. For georeferenced point clouds you also need the platform's position and attitude (GNSS/INS) and a common time base.
Which LiDAR for drones and mapping?
| Feature |  Livox Aviadrones and aerial surveying |
 Livox MID-360 Shandheld and backpack SLAM |
 Livox Avia 2for comparison: stationary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use | UAV surveying, inspection, mapping | mobile mapping on the ground | perimeter protection, long range — not for drones |
| Weight | 498 g | 265 g | ≤ 1.8 kg (with fan) |
| Range | 190 m @ 10% / 320 m @ 80% (100 klx); up to 450 m @ 80% without sunlight | 40 m @ 10% (typical), 100 m cut-off range | 400 m @ 5% / ≥ 800 m (focus) |
| Field of view (H×V) | 70.4° × 77.2° | 360° × 59° | 80° × 80° / 15° × 15° |
| Point rate | 240,000 pts/s (720,000 triple echo) | 200,000 pts/s | 350,000 pts/s (normal) |
| Highlight | triple echo | built-in IMU, 6.5 W | 1535 nm fibre laser, 50 W |
| Ingress protection | IP67 | IP67 | IP66 |
| ROS driver | livox_ros_driver / livox_ros2_driver | livox_ros_driver2 | livox_ros_driver2 |
| Price (net) | €1,420 | €605 | €2,850 |
| Availability | in stock | in stock | in stock |
| Buy the Livox Avia → | Buy the Livox MID-360 S → | Avia 2 for perimeter security → |
Prices net, plus 19% German VAT and shipping. Specifications as stated by the manufacturer and listed on our product pages. As of November 2026.
Livox Avia — for surveying from the air
The Avia puts 190 m of range at 10% reflectivity (at 80%: up to 450 m without sunlight, 320 m at 100 klx) on the drone at just 498 g and 91 × 61.2 × 64.8 mm. In triple-echo mode it delivers 720,000 points per second and penetrates vegetation and dust. Its non-repetitive scan pattern makes the point cloud denser the longer it integrates. Typical jobs are aerial surveying, inspection of overhead power lines, rails and infrastructure, and forestry and environmental surveys. The housing is rated IP67 and designed for −20 °C to +65 °C. The developers of FAST-LIO document their own small quadrotor carrying a Livox Avia in their repository.
Livox MID-360 S — handheld, backpack and vehicle SLAM
For mobile mapping on the ground, the MID-360 S is the lighter and more affordable choice: 265 g, a 360° × 59° all-around view and a built-in IMU that SLAM frameworks use directly — FAST-LIO's MID-360 configuration reads the sensor's IMU topic. At 9–27 V DC and 6.5 W it can run from common 12 V or 24 V battery packs. With 40 m of range at 10%, it suits buildings, interiors and terrain you capture on foot or by vehicle.
Livox Avia 2 — not a drone sensor
The name is misleading: the Avia 2 is not a lighter successor to the Avia but a stationary industrial LiDAR with a 1535 nm fibre laser. At up to 1.8 kg (approx. 1.5 kg fanless) and 50 W or 45 W power draw, it is built for fixed installations — for perimeter protection and long-range monitoring, not for drones.
Integrating LiDAR for drones and mapping in practice
Mount and payload
Add the mount, cables, on-board computer and GNSS/INS to the sensor weight. Design the mount so that the LiDAR and the attitude sensors are rigidly fixed to each other — their relative position feeds directly into the accuracy of the point cloud.
Georeferencing and time base
For survey-grade results, LiDAR points are combined with the platform's position and attitude. That requires a GNSS/INS solution and a common time base for all sensors. This integration is done by the carrier platform or your system integrator; we supply the LiDAR sensor.
Drivers and software
The Avia connects through the Livox SDK and the ROS driver livox_ros_driver (ROS 1) or livox_ros2_driver (ROS 2); FAST-LIO ships the mapping_avia.launch file for it. The MID-360 S runs with livox_ros_driver2 on top of Livox-SDK2, and FAST-LIO includes the mid360.yaml configuration. On a backpack scanner the operator is in the field of view — filter those points out with a minimum distance, in FAST-LIO with the blind parameter.
Flight planning
Plan flight altitude and strip overlap so that you do not push the range at 10% to its limit. Flying more slowly increases point density, because the non-repetitive scan pattern covers each area for longer.