Development of a versatile simulation software package for the design and analysis of different types of lidar

Funding from the minister of culture of Sachsen Anhalt enabled the authors to develop a simulation software package, which consists of three main modules: The signal module simulates various lidar signals such as transmitted and received waveforms as well as noise signals for pulse and CW lidars respectively laser range finders. The optics module simulates various imaging systems. The atmospheric module simulates the atmospheric contribution. The software potentially minimizes the amount of time consuming and expensive experimentation in lidar or laser range finder design.