{"ID":3083745,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-05T06:46:15.197025399Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-07T07:23:37.79250861Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.06130","arxiv_id":"2606.06130","title":"Towards Realistic 3D Sonar Simulation","abstract":"As underwater robotics research increasingly addresses complex 3D perception and autonomous navigation, the fidelity of sonar simulation has become a key factor in algorithm development. Current simulation frameworks typically rely on geometry-driven rendering, approximating 3D sonar as an underwater equivalent to LiDAR, which fails to account for fundamental acoustic phenomena such as refraction, multi-path interference, and phase-dependent signal formation. This paper proposes a modular architecture for realistic 3D sonar simulation that integrates GPU-accelerated graphics engines with physically grounded acoustic propagation principles. We implement a volumetric 3D sonar model within the NVIDIA Isaac Sim environment, modeled after the Water Linked 3D-15 sensor, and integrate it into a comprehensive underwater simulation framework. The system is validated through a hardware-in-the-loop configuration, where a modified FastLIO2 SLAM pipeline, executed on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano, performs sensor fusion using synthetic 3D sonar, DVL, IMU, and pressure data. Finally, a qualitative comparison between simulated outputs and real-world data from harbor sheet-pile inspections is provided, characterizing the remaining sim-to-real gap and establishing a roadmap toward fully acoustics-driven volumetric sensing.","short_abstract":"As underwater robotics research increasingly addresses complex 3D perception and autonomous navigation, the fidelity of sonar simulation has become a key factor in algorithm development. Current simulation frameworks typically rely on geometry-driven rendering, approximating 3D sonar as an underwater equivalent to LiDA...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.06130","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.06130v1","authors":"[\"Youssef Attia\",\"Davide Costa\",\"Francesco Wanderlingh\",\"Filippo Campagnaro\",\"Enrico Simetti\"]","published":"2026-06-04T13:16:32Z","proceeding":"cs.RO","tasks":"[\"cs.RO\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}