Airborne Altimetric Lidar Simulator: an Education Tool

This paper describes development of a simulator for airborne altimetric LiDAR. Main aim of simulator is to replicate the functioning of LiDAR sensor and generate data for a given terrain with specified parameters of the sensor and trajectory. The simulator has three components: 1) Terrain component, 2) Sensor component, and 3) Platform component. The terrain component is formed using multiple mathematical surfaces for bald terrain and for objects on top of the surface. The sensor component is designed to account for various parameters that can be set and varied in a LiDAR sensor. The third component attempts to replicate the platform parameters, viz., velocity, roll, pitch, yaw and accelerations. Simulated data should be similar to the data which might have been collected by actual sensor when operating with specified sensor and trajectory parameters over the given terrain. This is realized by first finding the time and space varying equation of laser vector and then determining the point of intersection of this vector with the mathematical surface representing terrain. Numerical methods are used to solve complex problems of determining the intersection of laser vector and ground surfaces. This GUI based simulator, developed in JAVA, will help in classroom and in producing data as required for conducting laboratory exercises.