Comment by sobot for Here's a Poor man lidar, that could be used for mapping. It uses a sharp IR sensor and a servo.http://www.pirobot.org/blog/0014/The xv-11 laser is a fairly cheap setup for under $100 on eBay. http://wiki.ros.org/xv_11_laser_driver

yea sure, lets see what i end up buying and we'll see how it works out. Lidar is tempting though lol do you happen to know of a working exploration package? I'm stuck.