Online Material-Labeled Environment Reconstruction via Bayesian Multipath Attribution for Low-Altitude ISAC
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Environment reconstruction for low-altitude integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) has largely focused on geometry-centric maps, overlooking material-dependent propagation effects. Material-labeled reconstruction is therefore a key step toward propagation-aware mapping, enabling more physically grounded channel prediction and uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) networking. However, constructing such maps from wireless multipath observations is challenging in outdoor multi-building scenarios because multipath components (MPCs) from different facades are mixed, path-to-facade attribution is uncertain, and UAV measurements arrive sequentially under time-varying observation geometries. To address these challenges, we propose a unified online probabilistic framework that represents each reflecting facade as a virtual anchor (VA) and couples Bayesian VA localization, multipath attribution, and material inference. The Bayesian front end estimates facade-level geometry and computes soft MPC-to-VA attribution probabilities using a speculardiffuse likelihood model, thereby accounting for both dominant specular paths and diffuse surface-interacted components. These attribution probabilities are used to construct attribution-aware MPC representations, which are aggregated in a VA-centric manner and mapped by a material inference network to facadelevel material evidence. The resulting evidence is recursively fused through an online Bayesian update to produce stable material posteriors and material-labeled environment maps. Ray-tracing simulations in a representative urban street scenario show that the proposed method substantially outperforms a no-attribution baseline, achieves 93.75% final facade-level material accuracy on a held-out UAV trajectory, and maintains accurate VA-based facade localization.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Liu, Meihui, Sun, Shu, Gao, Ruifeng, Zhu, Qiuming
Language: English
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213599527