Development and Validation of Velocimeter LiDAR Simulator

Velocimeter LiDAR sensors provide high-fidelity altimetry and velocimetry essential for precision navigation and safe landing operations. This work presents the development and experimental validation of a velocimeter LiDAR simulation framework. Using ray tracing techniques, we develop a functional model that generates synthetic point clouds and Doppler velocity measurements from virtual scene descriptions. Our methodology incorporates ground truth kinematic states to reconstruct experimental sensor trajectories, enabling direct comparison between synthetic and real-world measurements. Through statistical analysis of point cloud distributions and Doppler velocity measurements, we evaluate the simulation fidelity and validate the sensor model performance. Our results demonstrate strong agreement between synthetic and real measurements using median absolute deviation metrics and point cloud variance analysis. The validated simulation framework provides a reliable platform for generating synthetic datasets that emulate real-world LiDAR scanner behavior, advancing our understanding of velocimeter LiDAR sensor performance in simulated environments.