LiDAR sensor for bicycle safety

Using Arduino Project Guidance
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Hi everyone, I'm completely new to the world of arduino and programming and would like to hear some thoughts and advice from you guys!

For context, I'm studying a degree in mechanical engineering and my individual project involves creating a lidar system for bicycle safety. Many new cars incorporate lidar systems to help detect obstacles and to judge safe separation distances from other road users, but these benefits have not yet reached the cycling world.

The aim of this project is to design a bike lidar system based on a small-scale control system. The system needs to be mounted safely onto the bicycle, and the data interpretation needs to be useful to the rider.

I've chosen the garmin lidar-lite v3HP and arduino uno r3 as my components and have successfully used the example code provided by garmin to link the two, getting live readings on the serial monitor. But then again, live readings by itself is useless without any interpretation, and now I'm not sure what I should do to further develop the system.

I am not too sure what my next step should be in exploring the uses of the lidar system but I am currently thinking of a distance alert system where a warning is given when the read distance is below a certain threshold. Alternatively, I would also like to export the readings out to an excel file where it can be used for analysis.

If anyone has some sort of input or ideas, it would be massively appreciated! Happy to discuss this project with anyone and learn what I can. Any input will be of great help, thank you!

video used to link the sensor with my uno r3:

garmin example code:

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Sounds like a great project. Vibration and water take a toll on bicycles and accessories.

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Garmin and several other companies already sell radar (not LIDAR) vehicle detection gadgets for cyclists.
Most are incorporated into back lights and trigger when a vehicle approaches at a rapid rate. Suggest start with a patent search.

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To take your project to the next level, you could explore different ways to interpret the LiDAR data beyond just distance measurements. Have you considered incorporating pattern recognition algorithms? They could help in identifying and classifying different objects or potential collision risks. Btw, any thoughts about bicycle insurance? I've heard good things about sundaysinsurance.co.uk. Curious to hear your thoughts.

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Good idea, but surely for bicycle safety, you are considering LIDAR problems such as a very narrow beam, 40m absolute maximum range (Garmin) and sensitivity to fog, rain, dust and dirt.

Radar is less sensitive to rain and dirt, has much wider field of view, much longer range, and is also cheaper to implement (and as mentioned, is already available for bikes).

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