ReaLiTy and LADS: A Unified Framework and Dataset Suite for LiDAR Adaptation Across Sensors and Adverse Weather Conditions

Abstract

Reliable LiDAR perception requires robustness across sensors, environments, and adverse weather. However, existing datasets rarely provide physically consistent observations of the same scene under varying sensor configurations and weather conditions, limiting systematic analysis of domain shifts. This work presents ReaLiTy, a unified physics-informed framework that transforms LiDAR data to match target sensor specifications and weather conditions. The framework integrates physically grounded cues with a learning-based module to generate realistic intensity patterns, while a physics-based weather model introduces consistent geometric and radiometric degradations. Building on this framework, we introduce the LiDAR Adaptation Dataset Suite (LADS), a collection of physically consistent, transformation-ready point clouds with one-to-one correspondence to original datasets. Experiments demonstrate improved cross-domain consistency and realistic weather effects. ReaLiTy and LADS provide a reproducible foundation for studying LiDAR adaptation and simulation-driven perception in intelligent transportation systems.