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Bluetooth AoA antenna board squeezes into commercial tracking

Fri, Dec 09, 2022

The ANT-B11 compact antenna board combines Bluetooth technology with u-blox’s positioning and wireless communication technology to deliver direction finding and 2D indoor positioning.

ANT-B11 can be integrated into commercial tracking solutions, direction-finding applications and indoor positioning in mid-sized spaces.

ANT-B11 joins ANT-B10 which was launched early 2022. Both are designed for indoor location which is currently hampered because technologies such as GNSS do not always perform effectively, said u-blox. ANT-B11 is equipped with u-blox NINA-B411 Bluetooth 5.1 module and runs the u-connectLocate software, which executes the u-blox angle calculation algorithm. Used in conjunction with an application board, ANT-B11 functions as an indoor angle-of-arrival (AoA) anchor point. The angle calculated by the antenna board does not require any additional processing which means it is ready for use at the application level.

Depending on its orientation, ANT-B11 outputs the final azimuth, or elevation angle, in fractions of a second. With this information, it is possible to track assets and plot their positions in applications aiming at 2D visualisation. (The ANT-B10 is for 3D visualisation.)

ANT-B11 is in a compact, 29.5 x 93.5mm form factor to fit into existing enclosures or casings. It can thrive in any direction-finding application, said u-blox. For example, it can be used to follow assets in indoor areas, grant building access and avoid collisions, in industrial, retail and medical environments. In addition, it can be used in indoor spaces for positioning purposes wherein showing the location of an asset in 2D may suffice.

u-blox specialises in positioning and wireless communication technology in automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. The company’s services and products let people, vehicles, and machines determine their precise position and communicate wirelessly over cellular and short range networks. It offers a broad portfolio of chips, modules and secure data services and connectivity to develop IoT solutions.

The company’s headquarters are in Thalwil, Switzerland and it has offices in Europe, Asia, and the USA.

http://www.u-blox.com

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Inertial sensor has 6DoF for precise data, says Panasonic Industry

Fri, Dec 09, 2022

Information about the state and motion of a vehicle or machinery is provided by Panasonic Industry’s 6DoF (degrees of freedom) inertial sensor series. The Gyro & Accelerometer 6DoF sensor series can be used as a safety aid in cars, motorbikes, autonomous buses, construction machines and other applications where sensing is crucial to support motion detection, positioning, sensor fusion and inclination for safety and comfort driver aids, explained the company.

The six-axis inertial sensor series is a single-chip device which is ASIL-B(D)-compliant.

The Gyro & Accelerometer 6DoF sensor series (also called “6in1 sensor”) is available in a wettable flank QFN package. This housing has a special edge that forms a step. The solder creates a reliable connection in the throat of this step to allow high-quality soldering and error-free assembly, essential for automotive safety (electronic stability control, ABS brakes, traction control), comfort (navigation, head-up display, driver-assist and comfort) and industrial applications (off-highway industry, AGV, robotics), explained. Sensors in the series are robust, shock- and vibration-resistant.

The 6DoF sensor detects the motion of a vehicle in harsh vibration circumstances, for example when a car suddenly leaves the road. It uses data to adjust the torque of motor and the braking force to make the vehicle safe.

In radar / lidar applications, a sensor will detect the motion of the vehicle and the radar / lidar system uses the motion data to compare the obstacles detected in previous and current scans.

It can also be used to support the calculation of the position of a vehicle, if GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) signals are blocked, e.g. when the vehicle is in a tunnel.

The sensor can also be implemented in comfort applications like AR-HUD (augmented reality heads up display) systems. Here the sensor detects the movement of the car and can adjust the position of the AR-HUD beam with AR markers, in order for the driver to read. Another comfort-related feature is the possibility to adjust the suspension of the car, using the six-axis output, that can detect the state of the vehicle and cabin.

As well as consumer road vehicles, motorcycles and scooters, the sensor can be used in commercial vehicles. For example, autonomous driving buses can use the six-axis output to calculate, if the vehicle is on the pre-defined path. The sensors will also be able to prevent good falling off an autonomous forklift truck other machinery, such as lawn mowers, railway trains or compactors.

In industrial applications, for example wood cutters, excavators or agricultural machinery, the sensor can detect ego-vehicle motion, detect and calculate positions, initiate next operations to contribute to increased precision, productivity and safety.

http://industry.panasonic.eu

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VSI claims first automotive industry standard, high speed SerDes silicon

Thu, Dec 08, 2022

Believed to be the first commercial SerDes IC that complies with the ASA (Automotive SerDes Alliance) Motion Link standard, VS775 provides high speed data transmission for automotive camera applications.

VSI develops high speed communication semiconductors for vehicles and has introduced the industry’s first commercial serialiser/deserialiser (SerDes) silicon that complies with the ASA standard. It has a data transmission rate of up to 16Gbits per second, so that the engine control unit (ECU) can quickly process high resolution image data collected by vehicle image sensors, especially electric vehicles, and autonomous vehicles.

The VS775 provides a commercial camera link semiconductor that will resolve the bandwidth concerns associated with using more high resolution image sensors in advanced autonomous vehicle designs for automotive OEMs worldwide, said VSI.

As the level of autonomous driving becomes more advanced, the number of sensors such as cameras and lidar and radar mounted on vehicles increases, which creates demand for real time, high speed data transmission. For example, it is expected that more than 20 sensors will be required for one vehicle at ASIL 4 and 5 autonomous driving, which requires high speed data transmission technology.

The ASA standardisation means that there are no interoperability issues causes by OEMs using proprietary technology, pointed out VSI.

In addition to high-speed data transmission, the VS775 features a low power design that reduces power consumption by up to 50 per cent compared to existing products, said VSI. The compact size means it is optimised for electric vehicles and automotive camera modules where there is limited space.

Steve Kang, founder and CEO of VSI, said: “As an industry-standard product, the VS775 guarantees interoperability that existing SerDes products cannot provide, which will reduce OEMs’ development periods and drive down costs. This in turn should accelerate the evolution of self-driving cars and electric vehicles and drive the future of the automobile industry.”

Currently, VSI is in the process of supplying contracts for camera link solutions for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) with global automotive parts suppliers (Tier 1). The company plans to expand the support range of high-speed bandwidth to 32 and 64Gbits per second through subsequent development of the VS775.

VSI is a fabless company that designs high speed communication semiconductors for vehicles and high-speed transmission of large volumes of data generated in real-time from autonomous driving and electric vehicles.

VSI is a semiconductor technology-intensive start up and its major customers are global automotive OEMs and Tier 1 and Tier 2 companies.

http://www.vsitech.co.kr

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4D imaging radar architecture drives autonomous mobility, says Ambarella

Wed, Dec 07, 2022

Ambarella has introduced what it claims to be the world’s first centralised 4D imaging radar architecture which allows both central processing of raw radar data and deep, low-level fusion with other sensor inputs (including cameras, lidar and ultrasonics). Thie result is greater environmental perception and safer path planning in AI-based ADAS and L2+ to L5 autonomous driving systems or autonomous robotics, said the company.

Ambarella has used its Oculii radar technology which includes AI software algorithms.

By optimising the Oculii algorithms for its CV3 AI domain controller SoC family and adding specific radar signal processing acceleration, the architecture dynamically adapts radar waveforms to its surroundings to provide high angular resolution of 0.5 degrees and a dense point cloud up to 10s of thousands of points per frame, with a long detection range up to 500+ meters.

The CV3’s AI performance per Watt offers the compute and memory capacity needed to achieve high radar density, range and sensitivity, said the company. A single CV3 can provide high performance, real time processing for perception, low level sensor fusion and path planning, centrally and simultaneously, within autonomous vehicles and robots.

This is all achieved with fewer antenna MIMO channels than competing 4D imaging radars, said Ambarella, which reduces the data bandwidth and results in “significantly lower power consumption” said the company.

The data sets of competing 4D imaging radar technologies are too large to transport and process centrally. They generate multiple Tbits per second of data per module, while consuming more than 20W of power per radar module, due to thousands of MIMO antennas used by each module to provide the high angular resolution required for 4D imaging radar. This figure is multiplied across a vehicle’s six or more radar modules, making central processing impractical for other radar technologies, which must process radar data across thousands of antennas.

The data sets of competing 4D imaging radar technologies are too large to transport and process centrally. They generate multiple Tbits per second of data per module, while consuming more than 20W of power per radar module, due to thousands of MIMO antennas used by each module to provide the high angular resolution required for 4D imaging radar. This figure is multiplied across a vehicle’s six or more radar modules, making central processing impractical for other radar technologies, explained Ambarella.

Applying AI software to dynamically adapt the radar waveforms generated with existing monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) devices and using AI sparsification to create virtual antennas, Oculii technology reduces the antenna array for each processor-less MMIC radar head in this new architecture to six transmit x eight receive.

While the number of MMICs is drastically reduced, a high 0.5 degrees of joint azimuth and elevation angular resolution is achieved, reported Ambarella. The centralised architecture consumes significantly less power, at the maximum duty cycle, and reduces the bandwidth for data transport by a factor of six. It also eliminates the need for pre-filtered, edge processing which can result in loss of sensor information.

Additional benefits of the centralised architecture include easier over the air (OTA) software updates. Instead of individually updating each radar module’s processor after determining the processor and OS being used in each, the Ambarella architecture requires a single OTA update to the CV3 SoC and aggregated across all of the system’s radar heads. These radar heads eliminate the need for a processor, which reduces bill of material costs as well as costs in the event of damage from an accident (most radars are located behind the vehicle’s bumper). Additionally, many of the edge-processor radar modules deployed today never receive software updates because of this software complexity.

The centralised architecture will be demonstrated at Ambarella’s invitation-only event taking place during CES in Las Vegas in January. For sampling and evaluation information, contact Ambarella.

https://www.ambarella.com

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Bluetooth AoA antenna board squeezes into commercial tracking

Inertial sensor has 6DoF for precise data, says Panasonic Industry

VSI claims first automotive industry standard, high speed SerDes silicon

4D imaging radar architecture drives autonomous mobility, says Ambarella

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