DiffPhysCam: Differentiable Physics-Based Camera Simulation for Inverse Rendering and Embodied AI

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Chen, Bo-Hsun, Batagoda, Nevindu M., Negrut, Dan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Chen, Bo-Hsun
Batagoda, Nevindu M.
Negrut, Dan
author_facet Chen, Bo-Hsun
Batagoda, Nevindu M.
Negrut, Dan
contents We introduce DiffPhysCam, a differentiable camera simulator designed to support robotics and embodied AI applications by enabling gradient-based optimization in visual perception pipelines. Generating synthetic images that closely mimic those from real cameras is essential for training visual models and enabling end-to-end visuomotor learning. Moreover, differentiable rendering allows inverse reconstruction of real-world scenes as digital twins, facilitating simulation-based robotics training. However, existing virtual cameras offer limited control over intrinsic settings, poorly capture optical artifacts, and lack tunable calibration parameters -- hindering sim-to-real transfer. DiffPhysCam addresses these limitations through a multi-stage pipeline that provides fine-grained control over camera settings, models key optical effects such as defocus blur, and supports calibration with real-world data. It enables both forward rendering for image synthesis and inverse rendering for 3D scene reconstruction, including mesh and material texture optimization. We show that DiffPhysCam enhances robotic perception performance in synthetic image tasks. As an illustrative example, we create a digital twin of a real-world scene using inverse rendering, simulate it in a multi-physics environment, and demonstrate navigation of an autonomous ground vehicle using images generated by DiffPhysCam.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_08831
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle DiffPhysCam: Differentiable Physics-Based Camera Simulation for Inverse Rendering and Embodied AI
Chen, Bo-Hsun
Batagoda, Nevindu M.
Negrut, Dan
Graphics
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Robotics
We introduce DiffPhysCam, a differentiable camera simulator designed to support robotics and embodied AI applications by enabling gradient-based optimization in visual perception pipelines. Generating synthetic images that closely mimic those from real cameras is essential for training visual models and enabling end-to-end visuomotor learning. Moreover, differentiable rendering allows inverse reconstruction of real-world scenes as digital twins, facilitating simulation-based robotics training. However, existing virtual cameras offer limited control over intrinsic settings, poorly capture optical artifacts, and lack tunable calibration parameters -- hindering sim-to-real transfer. DiffPhysCam addresses these limitations through a multi-stage pipeline that provides fine-grained control over camera settings, models key optical effects such as defocus blur, and supports calibration with real-world data. It enables both forward rendering for image synthesis and inverse rendering for 3D scene reconstruction, including mesh and material texture optimization. We show that DiffPhysCam enhances robotic perception performance in synthetic image tasks. As an illustrative example, we create a digital twin of a real-world scene using inverse rendering, simulate it in a multi-physics environment, and demonstrate navigation of an autonomous ground vehicle using images generated by DiffPhysCam.
title DiffPhysCam: Differentiable Physics-Based Camera Simulation for Inverse Rendering and Embodied AI
topic Graphics
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08831