Physically-Based LiDAR Smoke Simulation for Robust 3D Object Detection

Abstract

3D object detection in adverse weather is crucial for autonomous driving, especially in smoke where LiDAR data becomes sparse and noisy. Due to the lack of real smoke data, this paper introduces a physics-based simulation framework to generate realistic LiDAR point clouds of smoke and augment large-scale driving datasets. First, we present a 3D fluid dynamics-based smoke simulation framework in Unity, which models the realistic spatial diffusion and temporal evolution of smoke particles. Coupled with a physically accurate LiDAR perception module, our system captures complex light interactions—such as beam attenuation, scattering, and multi-path effects—to generate high-fidelity, physically consistent smoke point clouds. Second, we propose a range image-based data fusion strategy that seamlessly integrates the simulated smoke point clouds into large-scale real-world LiDAR datasets (e.g., Waymo). This approach accurately emulates LiDAR scanning characteristics and naturally incorporates occlusion effects, enabling realistic smoke integration without compromising spatial consistency. To validate our approach, we collect a real-world LiDAR smoke dataset (LiSmoke) and conduct extensive experiments using state-of-the-art 3D detectors. Results demonstrate that models trained with our augmented synthetic data achieve significant improvements in smoke-affected scenarios, while maintaining competitive performance in clear-weather conditions. Our work provides a cost-effective solution for enhancing perception robustness in safety-critical environments.