An autonomous multicopter can travel by itself taking low level decisions. With the Lidar, it can stay at an even distance (top-down and left-right) at the very center of the place. When travelling, it transmits the mesures. The accuracy will depends of the speed and the time slicing.

Of course, the laser light is invisible, and then it may not look as cool as in the movie. With more noise... :o/

Finally some one replace the brain of a multi copter by a smart phone ()

Its locate itself in the 3d space by looking at its environment.