As industries around the world work to make their process and products not only automated but also autonomous, there has been an explosion in the use of detection and ranging systems during the last 20 years. Detection and ranging systems date back to radar systems that were developed during World War II.

RADAR stands for radio detection and ranging. More modern systems have been developed around light sources, leading to laser radar, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), and laser detection and ranging (LADAR) systems. On the surface, all of these systems are based on similar philosophies, and articles often group them together. But, LIDAR, laser radar, and LADAR actually have some significant technological differences that affect the applications for which they are suited. So, we wanted to take a deep dive on these terms and identify what detection and ranging systems are for and how they differ from each other.

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