Donnersdorf, 04/02/2021. After three years of development, the KameRad research project came to a successful conclusion last year. During this time, seven network partners developed an innovative sensor module called ‘KameRad’, which improves detection of the environment for autonomous driving. It perceives obstacles much faster and more reliably than previous systems.
The research project
The project was launched in 2015 when the ELEVATE program was announced by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the IKT2020 funding program. Ensuring safety in autonomous vehicles is absolutely crucial. The aim of the funding project was to develop a redundant sensor system for the detecting the surroundings of self-driving vehicle in urban and agricultural environments.
Collision avoidance in complex environments, such as urban traffic, in all weather conditions remains a major challenge and requires innovative, intelligent sensor and electronic components.
Through the support of the BMBF, such solutions are able to be developed in interdisciplinary cooperation between various parties from the fields of business and science. The exchange of knowledge and joint work accelerate the development and marketing of new technological solutions.
5.52 million euros were spent on the KameRad project. The BMBF covered 58 percent of costs through its funding.
In February 2017, the cooperation venture began: the companies AVL Software and Functions GmbH, InnoSenT GmbH, Jabil Opitcs Germany GmbH, John Deere GmbH & Co. KG, and Silicon Radar GmbH as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) contributed their years of experience and expertise to the project.
The focus of the joint project was to develop integrated high-frequency circuits, new integrated circuit packaging technologies, radar sensors, cameras, and image processing, as well as system integration – areas which the project partners competently covered.
InnoSenT’s own subproject focused on the development and integration of high-resolution radar hardware and near-sensor radar signal processing, and the company coordinated cooperation between the seven project partners.
Better and faster than previous systems
By directly merging camera and radar data in a single device, the new module enables significantly shorter response times and greater functionality compared to the individual technologies on their own. It is suitable for use in cars as well as with agricultural machinery. In addition, the system features the option of linking to GPS and Car2X information.
Video and radar technology complement each other ideally, and merging the two within a very small space bundles the advantages of the two technologies and compensates for the disadvantages.
The inherent redundancy mitigates the risk of failure for automotive sensor systems, while significantly boosting system reliability.
The sensor processes the high data volumes generated through the combined technologies directly with the aid of artificial intelligence, thereby significantly reducing response times. This way, the central processing system receives only the relevant, processed information.
Short response times are of particularly tremendous importance in protecting against collisions. The faster the camera and radar detect an obstacle and transmit data regarding it, the sooner the overall system can take measures such as braking or other https://www.innosent.de/typo3/index.php?route=%2Fmain&token=53c859a5e6a787cfdf79d5996cc93906c3ebf1f2 safety measures. Especially when autonomous vehicles encounter people, time plays a key role.
This video from the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) illustrates the project work and provides information about the developed, highly integrated camera radar module:
https://www.izm.fraunhofer.de/de/institut/projekte/kamerad.html
The project partners succeeded in creating a basis for highly integrated dual-tech systems. This further development will enable the production of high-performance and adaptable sensor systems at a low cost in the future. The enhanced technology overcomes previous hurdles and ensures greater safety. This paves the way for the expansion and better acceptance of fully automated driving.
While the official research work already ended in April 2020, the announcement of the results is following with a considerable delay. This was because a standard finale event with a public presentation of the results of the development work had to be cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. Despite this postponement, the relevance of the research results to the industrial and the automotive sectors must not be forgotten. The innovation achieved by the KameRad project is a major contribution to the progress of autonomous vehicle technology and is even more topical than ever one year after the project’s official completion.
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About InnoSenT GmbH
InnoSenT GmbH from Donnersdorf was founded in 1999 and is one of the world's leading companies in the field of radar technology. As a manufacturer and developer, the company supplies the full bandwidth of engineering services - from customer-specific development to series production. Thanks to the strong focus on quality and innovation, InnoSenT GmbH has been following a course to global success for many years.
More information can be found at www.InnoSenT.de
