Machine vision systems for short-range robots, based on a scanning lidar IBM, a cylindrical shape with a sweep angle of coverage of the horizon 360 ° and vertical angle to +30 ..- 30 °. In fact finder, mounted inside a scanning optical head, a permanent emission, low-power modulated carrier frequency of 10 MHz. The distance to the targets (at 10 MHz carrier - not more than 15 m) is proportional to the phase shift between the reference generator, modulating the light source, and response signal. Lidar IBM uses a simple analogue phase discriminator continuous and has a high angular resolution, in practice only a limited speed of the processor that handles three-dimensional "picture" lidar, and automatic level control signal at the receiver output (fast AGC introduced into the received signal phase distortion, the slow - narrow dynamic range). In 1990-1994 these lidars were tested in service robots Joseph Engelberger, but the use of lidar in serial products then abandoned in favor of low-cost ultrasonic sensors.