Compact, affordable LiDAR sensors such as the Livox AVIA offer new opportunities for autonomous monitoring of dynamic natural environments. This thesis evaluates the Livox AVIA’s suitability for static, manual, and stand-alone applications in environmental sensing. The research investigates the added value of the Livox AVIA by assessing its real-world performance, testing and validating manufacturer specifications, and developing a portable monitoring setup tested on wind-induced tree motion and beach morphology changes.

A series of controlled field-based experiments is conducted to measure field-of-view (FOV) coverage, point-density distribution, range precision, and sensitivity to vibrations. Python tools are used to estimate FOV coverage and density over time, while PCA-based plane fitting determines the distance random error at 20m. Additional analysis tests the influence of external forces causing vibrations and assess long-term stability using data from the Internal Measurement Unit (IMU). To achieve practical deployment, a portable Central Observations Recorder (COR) integrating a Raspberry Pi controller, power management, and anemometer connectivity is designed, developed and tested. Time series derived from point clouds are processed into 3D motion fields using PlantMove to analyse tree displacement patterns in order to showcase the AVIA's dynamic scanning capabilities.

Results show that the AVIA achieves approximately 92% FOV coverage within 1000 ms (contrasting the manufacturer’s 800 ms claim) and maintains high range precision (σ ≈ 0.8 cm at 20 m), exceeding stated specifications. Point density is found to be strongly non-uniform over the FOV, with the central half of the FOV exhibiting a roughly 2.4 times higher density. Small, irregular vibrations increase range noise by less than 1 mm, while airborne particles and heavy precipitation further reduce return intensity and point density. Scans made with hours of time in between showed negligible drift between them, confirming the sensor’s stability for longer-term monitoring setups.

Overall, the findings demonstrate that the Livox AVIA is a reliable, precise, and low-cost LiDAR sensor that can be used for near to mid range (2 – 100 m) static environmental monitoring. When appropriately configured and keeping in mind its non-uniform FOV density and full FOV coverage time, the system performs effectively in both manual and autonomous operations for monitoring dynamic processes.

This summary is about the highlights of the final design of the LAMP (Low Altitude Modular Platform). This report follows the project plan, baseline report and midterm report. This report presents the market analysis for the platform followed by the detailed design of the platform. The design of each subsystem is treated on its own after which the integration, manufacturing and operations of all subsystems are discussed. The low-altitude modular platform is a versatile satellite platform with a wide range of capabilities. It bridges the gap between small CubeSats and high-end Earth observational satellites, while also flying at 300 Km, enabling higher resolutions in a small form factor. While the market share of CubeSats has grown a lot in recent years, their capabilities are still limited. Due to practical constraints of miniaturisation, the spacecraft bus platform typically occupies approximately 50% to 80% of the total satellite internal volume. This problem is however remedied with the use of larger satellites, which is the market gap LAMP tries to occupy. It has both the advantages of standardisation, ease of production, and low cost of CubeSats, while also possessing a large payload fraction and the bus capabilities to accommodate a high-end earth observation payload. LAMP is also innovative in its communication capabilities: It is planned to be the first satellite platform to use the SpaceX Starlink constellation. This gives LAMP unparalleled communication capabilities for an earth observational satellite in its class. LAMP is capable of sending all the information of its design payload (the DST) in livelink. In certain orbits, it is even capable of streaming 1080p 60fps video live to Earth. This opens it for a great number of new applications related to civil, law enforcement, and military surveillance...