Terrazo
Sensor Deployment Simulator for Unstructured Outdoor Environments
Duration
2025 – Ongoing
Researcher
Hanju Seo
Affiliation
- EarthCode Ltd.
- D&AD Future Impact Fund
Role
- Principal Investigator
- System Architect (sensor placement workflow, coverage logic, agent system)
- Developer (Three.js, WebGL, browser-based simulation)
- UX Designer (toolbar system, interaction design)
Support
- D&AD Impact Council
Deciding where to place a sensor in an unstructured outdoor environment is not purely a technical problem. It is a spatial reasoning problem. The terrain slopes, occludes, and varies; the agents being observed move unpredictably; and the consequences of a poorly positioned sensor become apparent only after deployment, when nothing can easily be changed. Terrazo was built to make that reasoning visible before anything is committed to the ground. It is a browser-based sensor deployment simulator for heterogeneous worksites, designed to answer a single question with precision: where should sensors be placed on this terrain, and what will they actually cover?
The tool runs entirely in the browser as a single self-contained file, with no installation or external dependencies. Users load or generate a 3D terrain, select from a catalog of 128 real LiDAR sensor models drawn from manufacturers including Velodyne, Hesai, Ouster, Livox, and Robosense, and place them interactively on the terrain surface through a click-orient-confirm workflow. Each placement is guided by real-time coverage shading: terrain vertices within the sensor's field of view and range are tinted as the sensor is positioned, with ridge occlusion handled through ray-cast visibility tests. Orientation is controlled by yaw, tilt, and roll sliders, and a live mini-preview canvas shows the sensor's local slope and height above ground at the selected point. Multiple sensors are tracked simultaneously, with per-sensor coverage area and live agent detection counts updating every 300 milliseconds.
Alongside sensor placement, Terrazo includes an agent system for populating the terrain with mobile and static objects: cattle, workers, tractors, drones, structures, crops, and fences. Agents are placed by painting regions directly on the terrain, with real-time area readout and movement behaviour appropriate to each type. A suite of 33 toolbar tools supports the full planning workflow, from terrain visualisation modes (slope map, elevation colormap, contour lines) to analysis tools (blind spot detection, optimal placement suggestion, coverage reporting) and simulation controls. Terrazo is developed under the support of the D&AD Impact Council as part of the broader EarthCode research programme into sensing infrastructure for unstructured and dynamic outdoor environments.
Terrazo, interactive sensor deployment simulation across procedurally generated terrain, with real-time coverage shading, agent detection, and 33 analysis tools.