System and method for emulating echo signals for a lidar sensor

Abstract

A system and method are provided for emulating echo signals in response to a LiDAR signal. The method includes updating a current position of a moving emulated target according to a 3D simulation scene at a current frame, the simulation scene including a dynamic model of the target; estimating a next position of the target at a next frame of the simulation scene by updating motion transforms for the dynamic model using motion keys; performing ray tracing by launching rays in parallel, assigning different pulse times to the rays to simulate timing of corresponding light pulses of the LiDAR signal, estimating positions of the target at the different pulse times using interpolation, and identifying intersections of the rays with the estimated positions of as positions of hits of the rays; transmitting emulated echo signals to the LiDAR sensor indicating the positions of the hits; and updating the simulation scene.