RadarGen: Automotive Radar Point Cloud Generation from Cameras

Generative AI & LLMs
Published: arXiv: 2512.17897v1
Authors

Tomer Borreda Fangqiang Ding Sanja Fidler Shengyu Huang Or Litany

Abstract

We present RadarGen, a diffusion model for synthesizing realistic automotive radar point clouds from multi-view camera imagery. RadarGen adapts efficient image-latent diffusion to the radar domain by representing radar measurements in bird's-eye-view form that encodes spatial structure together with radar cross section (RCS) and Doppler attributes. A lightweight recovery step reconstructs point clouds from the generated maps. To better align generation with the visual scene, RadarGen incorporates BEV-aligned depth, semantic, and motion cues extracted from pretrained foundation models, which guide the stochastic generation process toward physically plausible radar patterns. Conditioning on images makes the approach broadly compatible, in principle, with existing visual datasets and simulation frameworks, offering a scalable direction for multimodal generative simulation. Evaluations on large-scale driving data show that RadarGen captures characteristic radar measurement distributions and reduces the gap to perception models trained on real data, marking a step toward unified generative simulation across sensing modalities.

Paper Summary

Problem
The main problem this paper addresses is the lack of realistic automotive radar point cloud generation in the field of autonomous driving. Current neural simulators can generate photorealistic visual data, but they struggle to reproduce radar's distinctive sensing characteristics, including signal sparsity, radar cross section (RCS), and Doppler. This limits the fidelity of current neural simulators and makes it difficult to create realistic scenarios for testing and training autonomous vehicles.
Key Innovation
The key innovation of this paper is the introduction of RadarGen, a diffusion model that synthesizes realistic automotive radar point clouds from multi-view camera imagery. RadarGen adapts efficient image-latent diffusion to the radar domain by representing radar measurements in bird's-eye-view form, which encodes spatial structure together with radar cross section (RCS) and Doppler attributes. This allows RadarGen to generate radar data that captures the characteristic radar measurement distributions and reduces the gap to perception models trained on real data.
Practical Impact
The practical impact of this research is significant. By generating realistic radar data, RadarGen can be used to create more accurate and diverse scenarios for testing and training autonomous vehicles. This can lead to improved safety and performance of autonomous vehicles in real-world driving conditions. Additionally, RadarGen can be used for data augmentation, which can help to improve the robustness of downstream detectors. The scalability of RadarGen also makes it compatible with existing visual datasets and simulation frameworks, offering a promising direction for multi-modal generative simulation.
Analogy / Intuitive Explanation
Think of RadarGen as a "radar artist" that takes in camera images and generates corresponding radar point clouds. Just as a painter might use a photograph as reference to create a realistic painting, RadarGen uses camera images to create realistic radar data. The key innovation of RadarGen is its ability to capture the unique characteristics of radar data, such as signal sparsity and RCS, and generate data that is similar to real radar measurements. This allows RadarGen to create more accurate and diverse scenarios for testing and training autonomous vehicles.
Paper Information
Categories:
cs.CV cs.AI cs.LG cs.RO
Published Date:

arXiv ID:

2512.17897v1

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