RIEGL's miniVUX-4UAV drone lidar scans up to 150 times a second
In a 120-degree field of view, RIEGL's new miniVUX-4UAV drone lidar captures up to 133,333 measurements a second at up to 150 scans a second. RIEGL lists 12 mm accuracy and 8 mm precision.
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Key facts, context, and what it means.
Key takeaways
The miniVUX-4UAV’s upgrade targets its 120-degree field of view, with up to 133,333 measurements a second and up to 150 scans a second. RIEGL’s product page lists the miniVUX-3UAV at up to 100,000 measurements a second at 120 degrees and up to 100 scans a second.
The scanner's 12 mm accuracy and 8 mm precision are sensor figures. Finished-survey accuracy still depends on the GNSS/IMU, calibration, flight geometry and processing, so the RiLOC-E-25 versus RiLOC-F choice matters more with a sharper scanner.
On the full datasheet, check the miniVUX-4UAV’s maximum range. The miniVUX-3UAV lists maximum ranges of 170 to 330 m across 100 kHz, 200 kHz and 300 kHz settings (depending on target reflectivity).
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RIEGL debuted the miniVUX-4UAV at Intergeo 2026 in Munich, GPS World's Jesse Khalil reported on September 21. Unmanned Systems Technology placed the launch at RIEGL's booth B6D046 in Hall B6. It described the scanner as the latest addition to the company's line of miniaturized VUX-UAV sensors, from a firm that has built lidar for more than four decades.
The new model pulls ahead in its 120-degree field of view. It captures up to 133,333 measurements a second there, at up to 150 scans a second. RIEGL's own product page for the miniVUX-3UAV lists 100,000 measurements a second at 120 degrees (at its top 300 kHz rate) and a maximum of 100 scans a second.
miniVUX-3UAV against miniVUX-4UAV
What moved between generations
GPS World; Unmanned Systems Technology; CORSnet; RIEGL miniVUX-3UAV product page
Read the two spec sheets together and a pattern shows up. The changes cluster in one place.
The miniVUX-4UAV's upgrade lands inside the 120-degree swath: up to 133,333 measurements and up to 150 scans a second, with 12 mm accuracy and 8 mm precision.
The miniVUX-4UAV's upgrade lands inside the 120-degree swath: up to 133,333 measurements and up to 150 scans a second, with 12 mm accuracy and 8 mm precision.
Keeping measurements inside a set field of view can help an operator put detail along a flight corridor without spending points on directions outside the survey area. Think of a survey manager running a miniVUX-3UAV on power line or road corridors, where the swath is already filled out to the scan rate. For that manager, the question is simple: would a third more points per second in that swath change how fast they can fly or how many passes a job takes? For wide-area work that uses the full 360 degrees, the published figures show a smaller difference.
Narrower beam, five echoes per pulse
The miniVUX-4UAV's laser beam has a footprint of 125 by 50 mm at 100 m, and RIEGL says this provides maximum spatial resolution along with improved accuracy of 12 mm and precision of 8 mm. A smaller spot on the ground means each measurement describes a smaller patch of surface. That could help operators whose targets are small objects.
Multi-target capability does the other half of the work. A single pulse can return echoes from up to five targets at different ranges. CORSnet uses a forest as the example: one pulse can hit the upper canopy, branches, understory and ground, and recording each return helps separate vegetation layers from the terrain under them. RIEGL pitches the resulting data at forestry, archaeology, cultural heritage documentation, corridor mapping and construction site monitoring.
For construction teams, the scanner sits upstream of everything else. A sharper point cloud could help site monitoring work, but how much of that gain shows up depends on the rest of the system.
The 12 mm and 8 mm figures describe the scanner's own measurement performance. In a finished georeferenced survey, accuracy also depends on GNSS/IMU performance, calibration, flight geometry and processing. Five returns per pulse also don't guarantee ground points under dense canopy. That depends on canopy structure, flight altitude, scan angle and survey setup.
That is the strongest case against reading too much into the spec sheet. In heavy forest, the pulse rate matters less than whether enough energy gets through gaps in the canopy at all.
Standalone scanner or full RiLOC system
The miniVUX-4UAV is available as a standalone scanner for application-specific configurations, or as a system with integrated cameras and an IMU/GNSS unit, including RIEGL's RiLOC-E-25 and RiLOC-F options. On the miniVUX-3UAV page, RIEGL describes RiLOC-E25 as the cost-efficient version for small-scale work and RiLOC-F as the high-precision version for maximum georeferencing accuracy. The same page says the RiLOC components sit in a compact, lightweight housing directly attached to the rear panel of the sensor.
The better the sensor, the more that choice matters. If the point of moving to the miniVUX-4UAV is the tighter accuracy figure, pairing it with the lower-cost positioning unit could cancel out part of that gain on accuracy-critical jobs. For volume work where density matters more than millimeters, the cheaper unit may still be the right call. CORSnet puts the miniVUX-4UAV at approximately 1.55 kg and notes that total payload weight depends on the positioning system, cameras and mounting hardware, and none of the launch coverage gives an all-up number or names specific airframes.
Before quoting a job on the new scanner, ask the reseller for the all-up weight with the RiLOC option and camera you intend to fly, then check it against your airframe's payload and flight-time curve.
The datasheet line to read first
Range is the number to watch. On the miniVUX-3UAV, RIEGL lists maximum ranges of 170 m, 290 m and 330 m for targets of 20%, 60% and 80% reflectivity. Its table gives those ranges for the 100 kHz, 200 kHz and 300 kHz settings, and 150 m, 250 m and 280 m for a reduced-power 200 kHz setting. The launch reports don't give range figures for the miniVUX-4UAV.
If the 400 kHz setting keeps something close to the older model's range, operators get the extra density without dropping flight altitude. If it gives up range, the new rate becomes a low-altitude tool, and flight planners will have to account for that in every corridor job.
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