ousterlidar

Stream point clouds from Ouster lidar sensor

Since R2022a

Add-On Required: This feature requires the Lidar Toolbox Support Package for Ouster Lidar Sensors add-on.

Description

The ousterlidar object can stream point cloud data from an Ouster^® lidar sensor. Using this object, you can read and preview the incoming point clouds.

Creation

Syntax

ousterObj = ousterlidar

ousterObj = ousterlidar(calibrationFile)

ousterObj = ousterlidar(___,Name=Value)

Description

ousterObj = ousterlidar creates an ousterlidar object, ousterObj, that can stream point cloud data from the Ouster lidar sensor. This syntax is valid only if the firmware version of your Ouster sensor is 2.4 or above.

ousterObj = ousterlidar(calibrationFile) creates an ousterlidar object, ousterObj, that can stream point cloud data from the Ouster lidar sensor specified using the calibration JSON file.

ousterObj = ousterlidar(___,Name=Value) specifies options using one or more name-value arguments. For example, ousterlidar(Port=7503) specifies the data port of the Ouster lidar sensor as 7503.

Input Arguments

calibrationFile — Ouster lidar sensor calibration file

string scalar | character vector

Ouster lidar sensor calibration JSON file, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You must specify the full file path if the calibration file is not in your MATLAB^® path. If the firmware version of your Ouster sensor is lower than 2.4, you must use this argument at object creation to set the CalibrationFile property. If the firmware version of your sensor is 2.4 or above, this argument is optional.

Data Types: char | string

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: ousterlidar(Port=7503) specifies the data port of the Ouster lidar sensor as 7503.

Port — Data port of Ouster lidar sensor

7502 (default) | positive scalar

Data port of the Ouster lidar sensor, specified as a positive scalar. The data port for your sensor is listed in the Ouster sensor web interface Data Port field. Use this name-value argument to set the Port property when creating the object.

Data Types: double

Timeout — Maximum time to wait for response from Ouster lidar sensor

10 (default) | positive scalar

Maximum time to wait for a response from the Ouster lidar sensor, specified as a positive scalar. Units are in seconds. Use this name-value argument to set the Timeout property.

Data Types: double

Properties

Model — Model name of Ouster lidar sensor

Read-only: character vector

This property is read-only.

Model name of the Ouster sensor, represented as a character vector. The object supports these models:

Model Value	Ouster Model
'OS1-16' (since R2025a)	OS1-16 sensor
'OS0-32'	OS0-32 sensor
'OS1-32'	OS1-32 sensor
'OS2-32'	OS2-32 sensor
'OSDome-32' (since R2025a)	OS Dome-32 sensor
'OS0-64'	OS0-64 sensor
'OS1-64'	OS1-64 sensor
'OS2-64'	OS2-64 sensor
'OSDome-64' (since R2025a)	OS Dome-64 sensor
'OS0-128'	OS0-128 sensor
'OS1-128'	OS1-128 sensor
'OS2-128'	OS2-128 sensor
'OSDome-128' (since R2025a)	OS Dome-64 sensor

Data Types: char

IPAddress — IP address of Ouster lidar sensor

Read-only: character vector

This property is read-only.

IP address of the Ouster lidar sensor, represented as a character vector. This value is set by the incoming UDP packets from the sensor.

Data Types: char

Port — Data port of Ouster lidar sensor

7502 (default) | positive scalar

This property is read-only after object creation. To set this property, you must specify it using the Port name-value argument at object creation.

Data port of the Ouster lidar sensor, specified as a positive scalar. The data port for your sensor is listed in the Ouster sensor web interface Data Port field.

Data Types: double

NumPointCloudsAvailable — Number of point clouds available in buffer

Read-only: positive scalar

This property is read-only.

Number of point clouds available for streaming in the buffer, represented as a positive scalar. This value is set by the object buffer.

Data Types: double

CalibrationFile — Ouster lidar sensor calibration file

character vector | string scalar

This property is read-only after object creation. To set this property, you must specify it using the calibrationFile input argument at object creation.

Ouster lidar sensor calibration JSON file, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You must specify the full file path if the calibration file is not in your MATLAB path.

Data Types: char | string

Timeout — Maximum time to wait for response from Ouster lidar sensor

10 (default) | positive scalar

Maximum time to wait for a response from the Ouster lidar sensor, specified as a positive scalar. Units are in seconds.

Data Types: double

Streaming — Sensor streams data

Read-only: 0 | 1

This property is read-only.

Sensor streams data, represented as a logical 0(false) or 1(true). The value is 1 if the object receives streaming data from the sensor. You can use the start and stop functions to control data streaming.

Data Types: logical

ReturnMode — Return modes of the point cloud data

Read-only: {'strongest'} | {'farthest'} | {'nearest'} | {'strongest','weakest'} | {'farthest','nearest'} | {'nearest','farthest'}

This property is read-only.

Return modes of the point cloud data stored in the file, represented as {'strongest'}, {'farthest'}, {'nearest'}, {'strongest','weakest'}, {'farthest','nearest'}, or {'nearest','farthest'}.

FirmwareVersion — Firmware version of Ouster sensor

Read-only: character vector

This property is read-only.

Firmware version of the Ouster sensor, represented as a character vector. For more information on supported firmware versions, see Release-by-Release Version Support.

Data Types: char

LidarUDPProfile — Lidar data packet format

Read-only: character vector

This property is read-only.

Lidar data packet format, represented as one of these values.

• 'LEGACY' — Legacy data packet format.

• 'RNG19_RFL8_SIG16_NIR16' — Single return profile that is similar to the channel data block present in the 'LEGACY' format.

• 'RNG19_RFL8_SIG16_NIR16_DUAL'— Dual return profile that enables the sensor to output up to two lidar returns.

• 'RNG15_RFL8_NIR8' — Single return profile with low data rate and small data packet size.

• 'FUSA_RNG15_RFL8_NIR8_DUAL' — Dual return profile with low data rate and small data packet size. (since R2025a)

For more information on the data profiles, see the Sensor Data section in the Ouster Firmware User Manual.

Data Types: char

Object Functions

preview	Preview live point cloud data from Ouster lidar sensor
closePreview	Close preview of live point cloud data from Ouster lidar sensor
start	Start streaming point clouds from Ouster lidar sensor
flush	Delete point clouds from ousterlidar object buffer
read	Read point clouds from ousterlidar object buffer
stop	Stop streaming point clouds from Ouster lidar sensor

Examples

Create ousterlidar Object

Specify the file path of the calibration file of an Ouster lidar sensor to create an ousterlidar object, obj. The output shows the object properties.

obj = ousterlidar("C:\ouster\OS0-64G_sample.json")

obj = 
   ousterlidar with properties:

                      Model: 'OS0-64'
            CalibrationFile: 'C:\ouster\OS0-64G_sample.json'
                  IPAddress: '127.0.0.1'
                       Port: 7502
    NumPointCloudsAvailable: 0
                    Timeout: 10
                  Streaming: 0
                 ReturnMode: {'strongest'}
            FirmwareVersion: 'v2.1.1'
            LidarUDPProfile: 'LEGACY'

Create ousterlidar Object by Specifying Object Properties

Create an ousterlidar object, obj. Specify the port number and the time out value. The output shows the object properties with the specified port number, 7506, and time out value, 15 seconds.

obj = ousterlidar("C:\ouster\OS0-64G_sample.json", ...
            Port=7506,Timeout=15)

obj = 
   ousterlidar with properties:

                      Model: 'OS0-64'
            CalibrationFile: 'C:\ouster\OS0-64G_sample.json'
                  IPAddress: '127.0.0.1'
                       Port: 7506
    NumPointCloudsAvailable: 0
                    Timeout: 15
                  Streaming: 0
                 ReturnMode: {'strongest'}
            FirmwareVersion: 'v2.1.1'
            LidarUDPProfile: 'LEGACY'

Tips

Release-by-Release Version Support

Release	Supported Firmware Versions
R2022a	Support added for: 2.0 2.1
R2023b	Support added for: 2.2 2.3 2.4
R2024a	Support added for: 2.5 3.0
R2025a	Support added for: 3.1

Version History

Introduced in R2022a

R2025a: Support for more Ouster device models

The ousterlidar object now supports these Ouster sensor models.

• OS1-16

• OSDome-32

• OSDome-64

• OSDome-128

R2025a: Support for firmware version 3.1

The ousterlidar object supports firmware version 3.1 of Ouster lidar sensors. To comply with this version, the object also supports these features:

• The ReturnMode property now supports these return modes: {'farthest','nearest'} and {'nearest','farthest'}.

• The LidarUDPProfile property now supports the data packet format 'FUSA_RNG15_RFL8_NIR8_DUAL'.

R2025a: model input argument will be removed in a future release

The model input argument will be removed in a future release. This table shows a typical usage of the ousterlidar object and how to update your code by removing the model input argument.

Not Recommended	Recommended
ousterObj = ousterlidar("OS0-64","calibrationFile.json")	ousterObj = ousterlidar("calibrationFile.json")

R2025a: calibrationFile input argument is optional

If the firmware version of your Ouster sensor is v2.4 or above, the calibrationFile argument is now an optional input argument, because the object can get the latest sensor configuration using the HTTP interface. However, if the firmware version of your sensor is lower than v2.4, you must specify the calibrationFile input argument.

R2025a: Stream data from multiple Ouster sensors

You can now connect multiple Ouster sensors to your computer and stream their data into MATLAB by using the ousterlidar object. You must specify a unique port for each sensor. For example:

calibrationFile = "C:\ouster\OS0-64G_sample.json";
lidar1 = ousterlidar(calibrationFile,Port=7505);
lidar2 = ousterlidar(calibrationFile,Port=7509);

R2024a: Support for firmware versions 2.5 and 3.0

The ousterlidar object supports firmware versions 2.5 and 3.0 of Ouster lidar sensors.

R2023b: Support for Ouster-32 device models

The ousterlidar object now supports these Ouster-32 sensor models.

• OS0-32

• OS1-32

• OS2-32

R2023b: Object has additional properties

The ousterlidar object includes these additional properties:

• ReturnMode

• FirmwareVersion

• LidarUDPProfile

R2022b: Support for Ouster-128 device models

The ousterlidar object now supports these Ouster-128 sensor models.

• OS0-128

• OS1-128

• OS2-128