KI Radar
Autonomous driving needs to be safe and reliable. To achieve this, we need trustworthy new electronic components that are not only highly energy-efficient and high-performing, but still guarantee basic functionality even in the event of a fault. In conjunction with artificial intelligence (AI) methods, they build the technological basis that allows the vehicle to reacht appropriately to all driving situations.
The increased resolution of radar sensors through AI-based evaluation and coupling of the sensors and the new antenna structure are significant advances for increasing the effectiveness and safety of autonomous vehicles. The project thus made an essential contribution to the further development of autonomous driving.
Within the subprojetct
"Hardware and Software Platform for Edge Computing", Creonic participated in the following work packages:
- Development and validation of the AI algorithms
Design of the interface to the AI and integration on the FPGA - Development of the Cognitive Edge
Digital implementation of the transmission system
Project
High-resolution radar system with integrated
AI-supported data processing for cooperative autonomous driving
Partners
5
Duration Time
08/2019 bis 05/2022
Website
www.elektronikforschung.de/projekte/ki-radar
Updates
Implementation of wireless communication on digital level completed
- Analog front end
- Use of an adaptive system, which can be dynamically adjusted between data rate and reliability
- The design of the digital communication system allows to achieve a data rate of 1Gbit/s and still be functional even with poor link quality of -2dB SNR
- System supports different code rates and modulations (ModCods), achieving high spectral efficiency under different conditions (200 different gradations possible)
Implementation of wired communication completed
- Implementing the Tensorflow-Lite framework on the Xilinx ZCU106 to achieve seamless and accelerated integration and validation,
- Using a 10G SFP+ interface as it is flexible and readily available.
- Lab setup for demonstration purposes: connecting two FPGA boards as edge nodes, transmitting the images of a camera as secondary sensor and the FFT of the radar sensors as primary data.
- Ensuring scaling: connection of the boards was tested via a switch.
Seamless and accelerated validation
- Implementation of the Tensorflow-Lite framework on the Xilinx ZCU106.
- A software simulation can be performed on the target hardware, as well as a direct hardware implementation.
Operating system selection
- Linux distribution Ubuntu
- Integration of the browser-based development environment Jupyter, to enable easy programmability
- Linking to the hardware, so that software programming can be done largely without hardware knowledge.
Model format selection
- ONNX Format
- Tensorflow
Problem Definition
In the concept of edge computing,
a reliable and fast connection is a critical component here: multiple
participants (edge nodes) communicate with each other, performing
different tasks, but at the same time complementing and replacing each
other in case of failure. Within a vehicle, wired communication offers
the highest reliability. Due to the potentially large amounts of data
generated by AI, a sufficiently fast solution must be considered. At the
same time, for safety reasons, the results must be available in a short
time so that another system or the driver can react. In addition to a
high bandwidth for the data, latency should therefore be low.
To
increase the field of view of a vehicle, information and data from other
vehicles are used. Only wireless communication and a system that can
reliably transmit high volumes of data over a short distance can be
considered here.
Project Partners
The project consortium consists of:
-
InnoSent GmbH, Donnersdorf
(Project Coordinator)
- KSG GmbH, Gornsdorf
- Creonic GmbH, Kaiserslautern
- Universität Bielefeld
- Fraunhofer-Institut für Zuverlässigkeit und Mikro-Integration IZM, Berlin
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
