Configuring Sensors from a Spec Sheet

A vendor spec sheet is a good starting point for a virtual sensor profile, but it usually does not map one-to-one to every simulation attribute. Use the published values to initialize the sensor, then validate the simulated output against recorded data or known scenes. Some behavior depends on calibration data, processing firmware, or proprietary post-processing that may not be present in a public spec sheet.

Common Fields

Spec sheet field	Sensor attribute	Notes
Output rate, update rate, scan rate, or frame rate	Model-specific timing attributes	Lidar uses scanRateBaseHz for complete scans per second. Radar and camera profiles can use omni:sensor:tickRate as a requested update-rate hint; the application still controls sensor ticking.
Start delay or trigger offset	Model-specific scan offsets	Radar supports instanceTimeOffsetUsec for interleaved sensor instances and per-scan timeOffsetUsec for non-equidistant scans.
Model/vendor identification	omni:sensor:modelName, omni:sensor:modelVersion, omni:sensor:modelVendor, omni:sensor:marketName	Use these fields to identify the simulated profile. They do not change the physical model behavior by themselves.

Lidar

For an OmniLidar using OmniSensorGenericLidarCoreAPI, map the spec sheet to the core model and emitter-state attributes. The Lidar Sensor Simulation documentation provides end-to-end parameterization tutorials and downloadable USDA profiles.

Spec sheet field	Lidar attribute	Notes
Scan rate or update rate	scanRateBaseHz	Integer number of complete scans per second. Combine it with patternFiringRateHz to determine rotary tick density.
Rotary or solid-state scanning principle	scanType	Use ROTARY for rotating sensors and SOLID_STATE for fixed-pattern sensors.
Horizontal/vertical field of view and angular sample positions	validStartAzimuthDeg, validEndAzimuthDeg, emitterState:s#:azimuthDeg, emitterState:s#:elevationDeg, numLines, numRaysPerLine	Spec sheets often give only field of view and angular resolution. Build emitter arrays from the published pattern or from calibration data when available.
Rotary firing-pattern rate or angular resolution	patternFiringRateHz	Sets firing-pattern ticks per second. A complete scan uses integer division patternFiringRateHz / scanRateBaseHz ticks, and angular spacing is 360 * scanRateBaseHz / patternFiringRateHz degrees. Choose a firing rate divisible by the scan rate to avoid truncation at scan boundaries.
Minimum and maximum detection range	nearRangeM, farRangeM, rangesMinM, rangesMaxM	Use per-emitter range arrays when the profile has multiple range regions.
Range precision terms	rangeResolutionM, rangeAccuracyM	rangeResolutionM is the reported range increment used by profiles and packet encoders where applicable. rangeAccuracyM is the range-error scale used for distance-dependent measurement uncertainty.
Number of returns	maxReturns	Increase this when the sensor model should publish multiple returns per channel, for example when validating transparent or multi-surface scenes.
Wavelength, peak power, pulse duration	waveLengthNm, peakPowerW, pulseTimeNs	These affect intensity/radiometry. Wavelength also affects material spectral response; pulse duration also affects separability of nearby returns.
Beam divergence or beam waist	divergenceHorDeg, divergenceVerDeg, beamWaistHorM, beamWaistVerM, focusDistM	Use the representation available from the spec sheet. If both divergence and waist are available, verify which model path consumes the values for the selected rayType.
Minimum reflectance detection claim	minReflectance, minReflectionRangeM	Use these fields to approximate guaranteed-detection claims such as target reflectance at a published range.

Radar

For an OmniRadar using OmniSensorGenericRadarWpmDmatAPI, start with the global radar attributes and one or more scan configuration API instances. Near/far or short/long-range modes should usually be represented as separate scan configurations such as s001 and s002. The Omniverse Radar Extension documentation includes an inline multi-scan USDA example.

Spec sheet field	Radar attribute	Notes
Frame or cycle rate	omni:sensor:tickRate	Desired radar update rate in Hz. This is a scheduling hint and does not drive ticking by itself.
Instance and scan timing offsets	instanceTimeOffsetUsec, timeOffsetUsec	Use the instance offset when radars are interleaved and the per-scan offset when a radar schedules non-equidistant scan configurations.
Carrier frequency or wavelength	waveLengthMm or waveform parameters such as carrierFrequency	Use whichever representation is supported by the selected radar mode and profile source.
Maximum range and field of view	maxRangeM, maxAzAngDeg, maxElAngDeg	maxAzAngDeg and maxElAngDeg are half-angles; total field of view is twice the value.
Range, velocity, and angular resolution	rangeResM, velResMps, boreAzResDeg, boreElResDeg	With binsFromSpec=true and datacubeMode=FAST, these values are used to derive binning behavior.
Explicit bin counts	rBins, vBins, azBins, elBins	Used when binsFromSpec=false.
Range or angular ambiguity	enableRangeAliasing, enAngAliasing	Enable only when the real sensor mode can report ambiguous detections folded into the configured unambiguous interval.
Chirp or waveform settings	chirpDuration, chirpBandwidth, chirpRepetitionTime, slowTimeSamples, fastTimeSamples, padding samples	Use these when the profile is modeled in WAVEFORM mode or when a vendor mode is specified by waveform timing.
Antenna pattern or aperture	Antenna gain arrays and aperture fields	Prefer measured or calibrated antenna data when available. Defaults are only an approximation.

Stereo Depth Camera

Stereo-depth sensor behavior is configured on the camera prim and its render product. Apply OmniSensorDepthSensorSingleViewAPI_1 to the depth render product, then configure it with the fields below.

Spec sheet field	Camera or depth attribute	Notes
Resolution	Render product resolution	Match the published output resolution for the depth stream being modeled.
Baseline	omni:rtx:post:depthSensor:baselineMM	Distance in millimeters between the simulated stereo cameras.
Focal length in pixels	omni:rtx:post:depthSensor:focalLengthPixel	Used with sensor size for disparity behavior. This is separate from the USD camera prim focal length.
Sensor size for disparity	omni:rtx:post:depthSensor:sensorSizePixel	Pixel width used by the depth sensor model for disparity calculations.
Minimum depth, maximum depth, or closest range	omni:rtx:post:depthSensor:minDistance, omni:rtx:post:depthSensor:maxDistance, omni:rtx:post:depthSensor:maxDisparityPixel	maxDisparityPixel controls how close highly disparate objects can be resolved.
Confidence and noise claims	confidenceThreshold, noiseMean, noiseSigma, noiseDownscaleFactorPixel	Tune these against measurements or acceptance criteria; public spec sheets rarely provide enough detail to set them uniquely.

Validation

After mapping a spec sheet into attributes, validate with simple scenes before using the profile in a full simulation:

• Check basic geometry and field of view with known targets.

• Compare point clouds or detections against expected range, angular coverage, and return count.

• Compare camera imagery and depth output against recorded calibration targets where available.

• Confirm that material, transparency, multi-return, Motion BVH, and post-processing settings match the behavior being validated.