Research & Software HELIOS++

Heidelberg LiDAR Operations Simulator

HELIOS++ is a powerful open-source simulator for terrestrial, mobile, and airborne laser scanning surveys. Researchers and industry professionals use it for survey planning, point-cloud algorithm development, and training AI models. Available as a well-documented Python package, HELIOS++ makes high-fidelity LiDAR simulation accessible and flexible.

Links

General Information

In 2020, HELIOS++ replaced the former version of HELIOS with a modern implementation in C++11, including Python bindings to allow easy use in existing workflows. The code and standalone installers are hosted on GitHub, the Python package is available from conda-forge. We invite interested researchers and developers to contribute to further development of this project by submitting pull requests. We also host an extensive wiki, where the complete functionality of HELIOS++ is documented.

NEWS

Stay up-to-date by following HELIOS via our GIScience News Blog and LinkedIn: #HELIOS #3DGeo.

New release: HELIOS++ v2.1.0 

HELIOS++ is on conda-forge and can be installed with:
conda install -c conda-forge helios
or
mamba install -c conda-forge helios

Releases & release notes

Successful proposal: 

Fostering a community-driven and sustainable HELIOS++ scientific software

The 3DGeo Group and the Scientific Software Center (SSC) of Heidelberg University have been successful with their proposal in the DFG call “Research Software – Quality assured and re-usable”. The main objective of the new project is to bring HELIOS++ to a professional level of software development and quality and to establish sustainable institutional structures.

Press release

 

LITERATURE & HOW TO CITE HELIOS++

More information on HELIOS++ is available in our publication. 

If you use HELIOS++ in your work, please cite:

Winiwarter, L., Esmorís Pena, A., Weiser, H., Anders, K., Martínez Sanchez, J., Searle, M., Höfle, B. (2022): Virtual laser scanning with HELIOS++: A novel take on ray tracing-based simulation of topographic full-waveform 3D laser scanning. Remote Sensing of Environment. Vol. 269. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2021.112772.

Secondary paper on virtual laser scanning simulation with HELIOS++ as a high performance computing challenge:

Esmorís, A. M., Yermo, M., Weiser, H., Winiwarter, L., Höfle, B. & Rivera, F.F. (2022): Virtual LiDAR simulation as a high performance computing challenge: Towards HPC HELIOS++. IEEE Access 10, pp. 105052-105073. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3211072.

BACKGROUND

HELIOS++ software modules and LiDAR simulation sequence

The novelty of HELIOS++

Virtual laser scanning is a tool to create simulated point cloud data, as would be acquired by a LiDAR sensor. Such data may be used to complement real data, where data acquisition is not feasible due to economical or logistic constraints or where it is impossible, e.g. when simulating a sensor that does not exist. HELIOS++ allows the simulation of laser scanning on different platforms (airborne, UAV-based, terrestrial mobile and static) and using different data types to represent the 3D scene, including triangular meshes, digital elevation rasters, voxel grids and point clouds. The implementation in C++ allows for low runtimes and efficient memory usage, while the Python bindings pyhelios enable direct use of HELIOS++ from within Python scripts.

OUTREACH

E-TRAINEE course

HELIOS++ is featured in the open E-TRAINEE course on 'Time Series Analysis in Remote Sensing for Understanding Human-Environment Interactions'. Explore the exercise, which combines LiDAR simulation with 3D point cloud change analysis.

TRAIL meeting

In the 2025 TRAIL meeting, HELIOS++ and AFwizard were introduced to the archaeological community for improved ground point filtering in various landscapes and for various acquisition settings. The teaching material is provided on an open course website.

VLS-4D - Proof of concept

A proof of concept for virtual laser scanning of dynamic scenes (VLS-4D) is available on the VLS-4D website. It includes code examples that can be run with HELIOS++.

FUNDING

LOKI project

funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF)
Funding code: 03G0890A
Duration: 2020–2023

SYSSIFOSS project

funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)
Project number: 411263134
Duration: 2019–2022 

VirtuaLearn3D project

funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)
Project number: 496418931
Duration: 2022–2025

CONNECT

TEAM

Bernhard Höfle
Alberto Manuel Esmorís Pena (Catallactical S.L., ES)
Dominic Kempf (SSC)
William Albert
Hannah Weiser
Lukas Winiwarter (University of Innsbruck, AT)

Research

3DGeo Publications

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2016

Publications from other Research Groups

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2017