Rapid simulation-based uncertainty quantification of flash-type time-of-flight and Lidar-based body-scanning processes

Lidar and other time-of-flight technologies have recently received significant attention in both academic and industrial biomechanics communities, driven by technological advances in human body scanners . This paper develops an efficient and rapid computational method to simulate fast flash-type single-pulse Lidar, based on decomposition of a Lidar pulse into a group of rays, which are then tracked and processed. This allows one to quickly quantify the uncertainty in the response by identifying regions where the return signal will be erroneous due to multiple reflections.