CEO Paul Gray displays the MK6 OBU (left) and RSU. (Photo: Cohda Wireless)
Cohda Wireless has developed an advanced and versatile V2X connectivity solution to help pave the way for the introduction of connected vehicles on smart roads and highways across the globe.
The MK6 RSU (roadside unit) and OBU (onboard unit) offer a comprehensive connectivity capability as standard features, including DSRC, C-V2X, LTE/5G and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth.
The Australian-headquartered company believes the MK6 will expedite the rollout of cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) around the world. Cohda’s V2X stack and applications are widely deployed in the industry, and the MK6 is the company’s most capable, versatile and powerful platform to date.
The dual concurrent technology capability of the MK6 gives users the reliability, flexibility and interoperability needed to embark on deployments with confidence, no matter where they are in the world, said Paul Gray, Cohda Wireless chief executive officer.
“More and more cities across the world are actively embarking on initiatives to introduce connected vehicles on their roads and we developed the MK6 with the intent that it would become the undisputed connectivity solution of choice,” Gray explained.“City transport authorities want to invest confidently in future-proof products, and when they equip their traffic lights and other roadside infrastructure with the MK6 Road-Side Unit, they are deploying a road-ready solution that can reduce congestion and road accidents.”
The MK6 also offers improved security and processing power for unique and complex applications, Gray said.
In developing the sixth-generation MK6, Cohda applied its experience and involvement in some of the world’s most prolific trials and deployments, including the 3,000-vehicle New York Connected Vehicle Project as well as Australia’s largest connected vehicle pilot, the Ipswich Connected Vehicle Project.
Cohda’s technology has featured in two production vehicle platforms, most recently in 2019 when Volkswagen equipped its Golf 8 production model with Cohda’s V2X. Volkswagen is the second manufacturer to incorporate Cohda’s V2X technology in a production vehicle in readiness for an impending connected road transport system.
“We are approaching a tipping point and we expect the MK6 to be a catalyst for increased momentum,” explained Gray.
“The MK6 is the all-rounder solution that makes it easy for the entire industry, especially cities and transport authorities, to participate in the evolution of the world’s transport systems,” Gray added.
The MK6 features the RoadLink SAF5400 and SXF1800 chipsets from NXP Semiconductors, as well as the Qualcomm Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF Platform. It will be available in December.
Of the hundreds of papers researchers presented at the Institute of Navigation’s annual ION GNSS+ conference, which took place virtually Sept. 21–25, the following four focused on autonomous vehicle positioning for automobiles on city streets. The papers are available at www.ion.org/publications/browse.cfm.
Digital Maps with Tethered Positioning
The authors propose a new method for tight integration of digital map and dead-reckoning (DR) system (inertial measurement unit plus wheel odometer) to provide reliable navigation solutions in challenging GNSS environments for extended periods. Integrated DR and GNSS have been widely used as the backbone of any navigation system for the internet of things (IoT) and vehicle navigation applications. Dollar-level micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) inertial measurement units (IMUs) aided by vehicle-wheel odometers have been recently used as low-cost DR systems to bridge GNSS gaps in harsh environments, such as urban canyons, tunnels and under bridges.
However, DR drift errors rapidly increase over time and cannot satisfy most IoT and land-vehicle navigation requirements. Plus, the GNSS receiver may fail to provide accurate position or even experience a complete outage for more than 15 minutes, causing the tethered positioning error to reach several hundred meters. Because land vehicles are supposed to travel on roads, feedback from a digital map can be used to constrain their position.
The authors used a fuzzy-logic map-matching algorithm to identify the correct road segment on which the vehicle moves. A feedback filter senses a correct map-matched position as well as the road segment as measurement updates to the Kalman filter (KF) of the tethered positioning system. The proposed tight integration of digital maps and a DR system is evaluated using datasets collected by Profound Positioning Inc. in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Results show the proposed method has an average of 0.15% of relative horizontal position error for Calgary datasets — a considerable improvement over the tethered-solution-only with 3.3% of relative horizontal position error. The average azimuth error of the proposed system is 1.3 degrees, while the tethered positioning system shows an average azimuth error of 9.7 degrees.
Citation. Yashar Balazadegan Sarvrood, Haiyu Lan, Aboelmagd Noureldin, Naser El-Sheimy and Profound Positioning Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada. “Tight Integration of Digital Map and Tethered Positioning and Navigation Solution for IoT applications and Land Vehicles.”
5G Signals for Opportunistic Navigation
This paper presents a navigation framework in which 5G signals are used for navigation purposes in an opportunistic fashion. A carrier-aided code-based software-defined receiver (SDR) produces navigation observables from received downlink 5G signals. The SDR produces navigation observables from 5G signals and a navigation filter in which the observables are processed to estimate the user equipment’s position and velocity.
An experiment was conducted on a ground vehicle to assess the navigation performance of 5G signals. In the experiment, the vehicle-mounted receiver navigated using 5G signals from two 5G base stations (also known as gNodeBs, or gNBs) for 1.02 km in 100 seconds. The proposed 5G navigation framework demonstrated a position root-mean-squared error of 14.93 m, while listening to signals from only two gNBs.
Citation. Ali A. Abdallah, Kimia Shamaei and Zaher M. Kassas, “Assessing Real 5G Signals for Opportunistic Navigation.”
Using Low-Cost Onboard Sensors
For autonomous vehicles, accurate positioning must be ubiquitous — reliably available at all times and in all places in which the vehicle is expected to operate. While GNSS commonly provides the basis for absolute positioning, it suffers from the problem of availability whenever a direct view of enough satellites is not possible. To address this failure mode, additional complementary sensors can be added to the overall navigation solution through a technique known as sensor fusion. Sensors such as inertial measurement units (IMUs), cameras, lidars, radar and more can be selected in such a way that the individual shortcomings of each sensor are mitigated, and the overall robustness and reliability are improved.
Although current autonomous-vehicle applications employ sensor-fusion techniques, they tend to rely on high-performance sensors to meet the accuracy requirements. These high-performance sensors tend to induce a much higher cost burden than would be acceptable for commercial production, and therefore make mass autonomy too expensive.
This paper focuses on using the lower cost sensors already available on most modern vehicles. These include low-resolution odometry and consumer-grade IMUs currently used for dynamic stability control and wheel-slip detection. A novel approach for combining vehicle speed, steering angles, transmission settings and multiple odometry inputs is presented along with achievable results while operating under a GNSS-denied environment. The test trajectory mimics a typical parking structure with many corners and short, straight segments. The only a priori information required for the filter is the wheel track and wheelbase (separation distance of the wheels).
A 90% performance improvement compared to the stand-alone GNSS/INS solution was observed during GNSS outages of up to 30 minutes. Furthermore, up to a 50% improvement was observed when comparing the multi-odometry to the single-odometry outages during the same 30-minute outage condition. Beyond GNSS outage performance, this paper shows how the use of the extra input to the filter can improve the positioning system’s protection levels to allow for more frequent engagement of the autonomous navigation system.
Citation. Ryan Dixon, Michael Bobye, Brett Kruger and Jonathan Jacox, “GNSS/INS Sensor Fusion with On-Board Vehicle Sensors.”
Radar and INS/GNSS
An autonomous vehicle requires a ubiquitous, accurate, precise and reliable localization system. Many sensors can be used for positioning and navigation, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Inertial measurement units (IMU) are usually used to build inertial navigation systems (INS). INS can be accurate for short durations; however, an INS accumulates errors and loses its accuracy quickly, especially when using low-cost MEMS-based sensors. GNSS can provide an absolute position and velocity to update the INS over time. A barometer provides absolute elevation information, and an odometer provides a speed update.
An integrated navigation solution consisting of an IMU, a GNSS-RTK receiver and odometer can perform well in open-sky areas and on highways. This system can achieve lane-level accuracy most of the time based on the condition of the sensors and the quality of the measurements. However, in downtown and urban environments, the degradation, multipath and blockage of the GNSS signal leads to poor performance for such an integrated navigation system, which is challenged to maintain lane-level positioning.
This paper presents a version of AUTO (formerly known as Coursa Drive), a real-time integrated navigation system that provides an accurate, reliable, high-rate and continuous navigation solution for autonomous vehicles by integrating INS, RTK GNSS, odometer and radar sensors with TomTom’s HD Maps. AUTO performs a tight nonlinear integration of the radar data and maps with the INS/GNSS/odometer system.
Results demonstrate that radar measurements and HD Maps can be tightly integrated with INS/GNSS in an effective manner, such that the integrated system can provide a high-rate, accurate, reliable and robust navigation solution. This is a crucial requirement for realizing a fully autonomous vehicle that can operate in urban environments under a wide range of conditions, including adverse weather and lighting conditions, even in downtown areas with degraded or denied GNSS signals.
Citation. Abdelrahman Ali, Billy Chan, Amr Shebl Ahmed, Medhat Omr, Dylan Krupity, Qingli Wang, Amr Al-Hamad, Jacques Georgy and Christopher Goodall, “Tight Coupling Between Radar and INS/GNSS with AUTO Software for Accurate and Reliable Positioning for Autonomous Vehicles.”
Central Italy — already home to an ambitious national autonomous driving research initiative — will be the site of the P-CARS laboratory, intended to certify positioning devices for use within driverless cars.
The new P-CARS laboratory is financed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) through the Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) of the European Space Agency. The lab will support the goals of EMERGE, a public-private partnership for innovation established in 2018 between Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development, the University of L’Aquila and the mountainous Abruzzo region. Also in the partnership are the RadioLabs research consortium and the Leonardo, Telespazio and Elital companies.
RadioLabs laboratory at the University of L’Aquila, part of Italy’s EMERGE initiative developing autonomous and connected driving solutions. (Photo: RadioLabs)
EMERGE will develop satellite navigation and 5G solutions for connected, cybersecure and autonomous vehicles. The new P-CARS laboratory will be an independent venue for testing devices supporting autonomous and connected driving.
“The idea behind it is to create a research ecosystem, focused on developing, testing, validating and promoting the use of Galileo and other GNSS — along with 5G communications — for connected and autonomous driving,” said Francesco Rispoli, chief satellite operations at Hitachi Rail STS and director general of RadioLabs.
Abruzzo already hosts a manufacturing site for Stellantis’ Fiat Ducato light truck, the Galileo control center at Fucino, and the connected-car center of the University of L’Aquila. P-CARS will be integrated into the university’s Center of Excellence for Geo-localized, Connected and Cyber-secure vehicles.
Italy’s EMERGE initiative is developing GNSS and 5G technology for autonomous and connected driving. (Image: RadioLabs)
“The P-CARS lab will have a 150-square-meter testbed area, beside an existing driving circuit, with the right to use the surrounding open space as well,” Rispoli said. “We’ll be addressing connected autonomous driving functions with GNSS technologies that are safety critical, the key point being that safety must be ensured through standardized test procedures, serving as a trusted third-party to validate specific solutions from companies.”
“This is a valuable response to our national strategy, promoting the adoption of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions in the fast growing automotive sector by leveraging the latest technologies brought by Galileo and 5G,” said Alberto Tuozzi, head of ASI’s Navigation and Telecommunication Department. “Cross fertilization, cooperation and interaction among the stakeholders will be pursued in the unique ecosystem of the Abruzzo region, bringing together space and non-space stakeholders: ASI, ESA, satellite and automotive industries, universities and research centers.”
Autonomous vehicles will have two distinct sets of inputs: sensors such as cameras, lidar and radar to know the context around the car; and GNSS and inertial measurement systems to know its position. The two sets work independently but come together to ensure safety. (Photo: RadioLabs)
Leveraging its expertise on Galileo and safety applications, ESA will support this initiative in two ways: with technical support and through cooperation and exchanges with other institutions and laboratories at the international level. ESA said P-CARS could become part of a network of centers of excellence in the PNT domain applied to autonomous cars and beyond.
P-CARS will exploit the synergies between the rail and automotive sectors to provide benefits to both. “Car manufacturers produce millions of vehicles and are investing heavily in autonomy and safety systems, but had little experience in this field before they began investing a few years ago,” Rispoli said. “Meanwhile, the rail community has almost 20 years’ experience managing train driving functions with a high degree of autonomy, through the common European Rail Traffic Management System, ERTMS.”
Hitachi Rail and Rio Tinto collaborated to build the world’s first driverless heavy freight train – an automated heavy haul freight transportation system delivering freight from mines to ports in Australia across thousands of kilometers every day. (Photo: Hitachi Rail)
“It is well recognized that ERTMS guarantees the highest safety levels as a connected and autonomous driving system, where the human driver is largely bypassed, but not the volume for mass producing such systems for reducing their cost. By leveraging these two peculiarities it will be possible to get low cost but safety-proven GNSS-based devices,” Rispoli said.
The emphasis will be on connectivity, with the vehicles linked to the infrastructure, including a centralized system of intelligent roads as well as other cars. 5G will enable low-latency communications and be a source of positioning data to extend the performance of GNSS.
P-CARS is being supported through Element 3 of NAVISP, focused on supporting ESA member states’ navigation priorities.
According to a report by InForGrowth, the global GPS tracking devices market was valued at $1,567 million in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.2% during the forecast period 2026.
Increasing demand for fleet telematics and affordable prices of GPS tracking devices are expected to drive the growth of the GPS tracking devices market.
However, the report says, environmental obstacles and non-standard products are expected to impede the growth of the market in the coming years.
The growth of the GPS tracking devices market is attributed to the increasing demand for fleet telematics in the transportation and logistics sector. Government authorities are making rules and regulations for fleet tracking systems in commercial vehicles for improving the safety of passengers, the report said. In addition, vehicle rental companies are deploying an increased number of GPS tracking devices in their fleets.
Next, technological advancements such as self-driving vehicles and connected car technology mainly rely on GPS-based tracking systems for improving the accuracy and reliability of navigation. According to the report, many developing countries, such as India, are focusing on the advancement of their navigation technology. The adoption of 5G communication technology will also help in the advancement of driverless cars technology, which uses GPS tracking devices for movement and route planning.
Finally, the affordability of GPS tracking devices has encouraged market growth, the report said. This in turn has increased competition between manufacturers to develop updated technology-enabled GPS tracking devices.
While connected cars provide wonderful advantages, their integration with cloud connectivity come with a heightened risk for cyber attacks.
Commentary by Alexander Meisel
When it comes to connected cars, automakers are innovating fast. Consumers are experiencing increasing amounts of futuristic features, be they passenger connectivity, automated speed regulation or autonomous driving capabilities.
However, these innovations and their integration with cloud connectivity come with a heightened risk for cyber attacks. A recent study conducted by U.K. self-driving hub organization Zenzic found that becoming cyber-resilient will be the biggest technical obstacle to successfully deploy self-driving cars on roads by 2030. This mountain will be a big one to surmount, and it’s only growing in size: The auto industry has seen a 94% year-over-year increase in hacks since 2016.
How can automakers prioritize security while keeping up with the demand for innovation in today’s connected cars?
Carmakers must consider security from day one
To make sure that security is built into the very foundations of a car, automakers must make it a priority from the first day of design. This focus is lacking amongst carmakers at the moment. In fact, 19% respondents to one survey said they don’t do enough security testing in the design phase, and only 28% said that they do a lot of the testing during the design stage.
Automakers can use design principles to build in security from the outset. For example, the principle of complete mediation allows for enhanced security as it ensures that a software stem “requires access checks to an object each time a subject requests access.” This means that attackers are only invited to exploit a system on one single occasion due to checks on subjects’ permissions.
Carmakers can also ensure that they are not sacrificing security by considering its importance when purchasing components from separate suppliers. These components must be specific enough to enable security in the system, but generic enough to allow for innovation.
Automakers must make cybersecurity a priority from the first day of design.
Here, companies can leverage the software engineering principle of interface segregation. This means that a shrunken, clear interface should be supplied by the vendor, so that the customer only uses the methods that are of interest to them.
In turn, this allows systems to remain decoupled and thus easier to then build a rich interface on top of. However, carmakers will have to stay on top of the security of the part in the development phase, and ensure that dormant functions are not abused by at least logging their execution once somebody tries to call them out of context.
Developers and cybersecurity experts must become a core part of the team
Software development is relatively new territory for carmakers. Now, cybersecurity is a key component of building connected cars, and automakers need to embrace developers that have expertise in this area and make them part of the core team.
This cultural change must be championed by the business leaders to allow car security to advance alongside the innovative features that the industry is building. This can be done by implementing DevSecOps ideology into the team, in order to “build the mindset that everyone is responsible for security.”
Car development teams will likely need a group of cybersecurity experts who can educate the rest of the developers and are willing to participate in the development process in order to check and implement safe and secure functions. If a company doesn’t have this kind of expertise in-house, they can partner with an expert third-party to help them along this journey.
Innovation and security can complement each other
Cybersecurity doesn’t mean sacrificing feature innovation: developments are being made in the field of security too, such as biometric technologies that can be integrated into car design.
For example, Blackberry’s QNX technology “has built in concepts for hardware and software trust validation, hypervisor to maintain a separation between the safety critical and infotainment systems, and a core operating system which passes all the functional safety standards,” according to the company’s senior VP SVP, head of QNX, John Wall. Innovation need not suffer at the hands of security, and vice-versa.
Potential AV thieves would first look to use GPS data to disable or falsify a car’s GPS system, making it untraceable.
In addition, the world’s leading electric vehicle provider, Tesla, ensures security in its cutting-edge, connected cars by sending security updates to cars’ operating systems overnight, and even providing awards for hackers that manage to hack its cars.
Looking ahead to the possibilities of autonomous vehicles (AV) that can drive passengers without needing to have their owner inside, innovation in GPS will be necessary to ensure security and accountability of the car. Potential AV thieves would first look to use GPS data to disable or falsify a car’s GPS system, making it untraceable.
However, carmakers can make this impossible for hackers by not just logging the data in its raw form, but also combining it with other car data using cryptographic algorithms. This ensures that the GPS data remains traceable even after the hardware has been taken apart and sold on the auto-parts black market. In this way, the signature of the original data combined with the GPS position adds an additional layer of security.
Integrating security into connected car design is no simple feat, but it’s a necessary one for carmakers that want to ensure the safety of their passengers while on the roads. By using design principles, diversifying expertise within development teams, and understanding that security and innovation need not be a trade-off, they can do just that.
Alexander Meisel is an automotive cybersecurity engineer at intive. He has a computer networking diploma from Hochschule Furtwangen University, and he has served as a CTO and Development Team Director in previous companies. He has experience with venture capital, successful M&As, and product and technical marketing strategies. He is also a public speaker at technical conferences and trade shows.
By Alexander Meisel, automotive cybersecurity engineer at intive
Alexander Meisel
When it comes to connected cars, automakers are innovating fast. Consumers are experiencing increasing amounts of futuristic features, be they passenger connectivity, automated speed regulation, or autonomous driving capabilities.
However, these innovations and their integration with cloud connectivity come with a heightened risk for cyber attacks. A recent study conducted by U.K. self-driving hub organization, Zenzic, found that becoming cyber-resilient will be the biggest technical obstacle to successfully deploy self-driving cars on roads by 2030. This mountain will be a big one to surmount, and it’s only growing in size: The auto industry has seen a 94% year-over-year increase in hacks since 2016.
So, how can automakers prioritize security while keeping up with the demand for innovation in today’s connected cars?
Carmakers must consider security from day one
To make sure that security is built into the very foundations of a car, automakers must make it a priority from the first day of design. This focus is lacking amongst carmakers at the moment. In fact, 19% respondents to one survey said they don’t do enough security testing in the design phase, and only 28% said that they do a lot of the testing during the design stage.
Automakers can use design principles to build in security from the outset. For example, the principle of complete mediation allows for enhanced security as it ensures that a software stem “requires access checks to an object each time a subject requests access.” This means that attackers are only invited to exploit a system on one single occasion due to checks on subjects’ permissions.
Carmakers can also ensure that they are not sacrificing security by considering its importance when purchasing components from separate suppliers. These components must be specific enough to enable security in the system, but generic enough to allow for innovation.
Here, companies can leverage the software engineering principle of interface segregation. This means that a shrunken, clear interface should be supplied by the vendor, so that the customer only uses the methods that are of interest to them. In turn, this allows systems to remain decoupled and thus easier to then build a rich interface on top of. However, carmakers will have to stay on top of the security of the part in the development phase, and ensure that dormant functions are not abused by at least logging their execution once somebody tries to call them out of context.
Developers and cybersecurity experts must become a core part of the team
Software development is relatively new territory for carmakers. Now, cybersecurity is a key component of building connected cars, and automakers need to embrace developers that have expertise in this area and make them part of the core team.
This cultural change must be championed by the business leaders to allow car security to advance alongside the innovative features that the industry is building. This can be done by implementing DevSecOps ideology into the team, in order to “build the mindset that everyone is responsible for security.”
Car development teams will likely need a group of cybersecurity experts who can educate the rest of the developers and are willing to participate in the development process in order to check and implement safe and secure functions. If a company doesn’t have this kind of expertise in-house, they can partner with an expert third-party to help them along this journey.
Innovation and security can complement each other
Cybersecurity doesn’t mean sacrificing feature innovation: developments are being made in the field of security too, such as biometric technologies that can be integrated into car design.
For example, Blackberry’s QNX technology “has built in concepts for hardware and software trust validation, hypervisor to maintain a separation between the safety critical and infotainment systems, and a core operating system which passes all the functional safety standards,” according to the company’s senior VP SVP, head of QNX, John Wall. Innovation need not suffer at the hands of security, and vice-versa.
In addition, the world’s leading electric vehicle provider, Tesla, ensures security in its cutting-edge, connected cars by sending security updates to cars’ operating systems overnight, and even providing awards for hackers that manage to hack its cars.
Looking ahead to the possibilities of autonomous vehicles (AV) that can drive passengers without needing to have their owner inside, innovation in GPS will be necessary to ensure security and accountability of the car. Potential AV thieves would first look to use GPS data to disable or falsify a car’s GPS system, making it untraceable.
However, carmakers can make this impossible for hackers by not just logging the data in its raw form, but also combining it with other car data using cryptographic algorithms. This ensures that the GPS data remains traceable even after the hardware has been taken apart and sold on the auto-parts black market. In this way, the signature of the original data combined with the GPS position adds an additional layer of security.
Integrating security into connected car design is no simple feat, but it’s a necessary one for carmakers that want to ensure the safety of their passengers while on the roads. By using design principles, diversifying expertise within development teams, and understanding that security and innovation need not be a trade-off, they can do just that.
Alexander Meisel is an automotive cybersecurity engineer at intive. Alexander has a Computer Networking diploma from Hochschule Furtwangen University, and he has developed as a CTO and Development Team Director in previous companies. He has experience with venture capital, successful M&As, product and technical marketing strategies. Meisel is also a public speaker at technical conferences and trade shows.
New hardware-in-the-loop application programming interface (API) for GNSS simulators enables greater accuracy, integrity and control for growing sensor fusion testing needs
Spirent Communications plc has released SimHIL, an integrated hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing software API for Spirent GNSS simulators.
SimHIL brings high-fidelity GNSS signal simulation with low latency to automotive industry HIL testbeds, the company said.
Image: Spirent
Spirent’s SimHIL software has been developed to meet the automotive industry’s growing need for realistic positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) testing for sensor fusion. As customers apply increasing pressure on car manufacturers for more advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) features and advanced infotainment systems, test labs need to be able to combine Wi-Fi, camera, lidar, radar, inertial and GNSS data that power these advanced automotive systems.
SimHIL helps test engineers bring accurate, controlled and coherent data from GNSS and inertial sensors to their sensor-fusion algorithms within HIL test environments. Facilitating the ultra-low latency, complete control, enhanced realism, and ease of use and setup of Spirent GSS7000 and GSS9000 GNSS simulators, SimHIL is suitable for OEMs and tier-one suppliers developing ADAS, V2X and sensor-fusion engines.
The new SimHIL API enables:
external motion input – real-time direct motion and trajectory data input from simulators
sensor fusion – introducing GNSS signals into sensor-fusion engines
V2X testing – validation and performance benchmarking of V2X applications
infotainment system testing – real-time scenario feedback to system and driver responses
vehicle-in-the-loop (VIL) – final production form product testing
accurate testing – reliable results supported by ultra-low latency simulation. Criticality of ADAS features, such as lane assist and automatic braking, mean that 3+ metres of uncertainty introduced by higher latency systems is not sufficient.
“With our SimHIL software and GNSS simulators, test engineers can bring realistic, controlled GNSS simulation to their HIL testing environments – a vital requirement in a world where ADAS features are relying more heavily and critically on accurate positioning,” said Martin Foulger, general manager of Spirent’s PNT business.
Spirent has worked with leading suppliers to ensure SimHIL is compatible with their HIL platforms, and because of its open API, there’s broad scope for additional custom third-party integrations.
“When used with our GSS7000, SimHIL latency is less than 40 ms from motion command to RF output and supports all GNSS and SBAS signals,” said Ricardo Verdeguer Moreno, product manager for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles at Spirent. “SimHIL is also compatible with all the options and features available in Spirent’s GNSS simulators, including ionospheric and tropospheric modeling, antenna patterns, date and time settings, and obscuration and multipath effects via Sim3D.”
Users can easily configure and control both the GNSS scenarios, and signal generation and vehicle motion from within the HIL simulator graphical user interface — saving time and the possibility of error.
Spirent is also offering three service packages alongside SimHIL to help customers mitigate project risk and reduce the time from delivery to useful deployment.
For more information about Spirent’s SimHIL integrated testing for Spirent GNSS simulators, visit the SimHIL information page.
Volkswagen and NXP to Deliver Safety to European Roads with Rollout of Communicating Car Technology
NXP Semiconductors N.V., a provider of automotive semiconductors, has rolled out its RoadLINK V2X (vehicle to everything) communication solution in the new Volkswagen Golf.
The recently released eighth-generation Golf is the first volume European car model equipped with V2X, offering a major boost to the deployment of the technology on European roads and beyond.
Life-saving tech. The technology can prevent accidents by having cars communicate with each other, independent of car brands and without the support of cellular infrastructure.
“Road safety forms the core of VW’s commitment to its customers. As a high-volume manufacturer we aim to be a pioneer in this space,” said Johannes Neft, head of Vehicle Body Development for the Volkswagen brand. “The introduction of V2X, together with traffic infrastructure providers and other vehicle manufacturers, is a major milestone in this direction. Volkswagen includes this technology, which doesn’t involve any user fees, as a standard feature to accelerate V2X penetration in Europe.”
“Volkswagen has taken a bold step to seize the road safety initiative through the implementation of V2X,” said Torsten Lehman, senior vice president and general manager of Driver Assistance and Infotainment at NXP. “After proving our technology in more than one million test days globally, we are pleased that our RoadLINK technology, developed in cooperation with Cohda Wireless, was chosen to enable new levels of safety in Europe’s most popular car model, the new Golf.”
NXP and Volkswagen have closely collaborated for high reliability and performance, as well as for standardization of V2X communication that addresses cybersecurity and privacy protection.
V2X in Europe. Wi-Fi-based V2X is a mature technology that has been tested for more than 10 years. Today, 1,000 kilometers (km) of European roads are equipped with V2X technology based on Wi-Fi with 5,000 km planned through the end of 2019.
Its research and development, testing and standardization has occurred within a strong global ecosystem of suppliers and car manufacturers to ensure reliability in diverse road and traffic conditions.
Wi-Fi therefore forms the basis of the European standard that has been chosen for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, according to NXP. An additional benefit is its availability independent of paid cellular services. Other developing cellular-based technologies can be added complementary to Wi-Fi-based V2X.
Migration to autonomous. V2X communication is set to become a critical part of advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and the migration to autonomous cars that communicate with each other and with traffic infrastructure.
The benefit of Wi-Fi-based V2X is its robust, low latency, real-time communication regardless of any car brands.
It enables awareness and communication between cars, road infrastructure like traffic lights or street signs, and other road users such as cyclists and pedestrians.
It is a technology that is collaborative, allowing it to “tap into” surrounding sensor data from mutually equipped cars to warn of hazards and prevent accidents.
V2X is a technology that complements other ADAS sensing technologies such as radar, lidar and cameras.
It helps vehicles to “see” more than a mile ahead and around corners to provide early warning of obstacles, hazards and road conditions.
It has the ability to “see” through objects, delivering more information than that obtained through line of sight only.
Its sensing capabilities are unaffected by poor weather conditions.
The Swift/Arm partnership means Arm will offer Swift Navigation’s high-integrity, high-accuracy GNSS positioning solutions as an option on Arm-based platforms to developers of autonomous and connected vehicles. (Image: Swift Navigation)
Swift Navigation is partnering with Arm, a global leader in semiconductor IP.
The partnership means Arm will offer Swift Navigation’s high-integrity, high-accuracy GNSS positioning solutions as an option on Arm-based platforms to developers of autonomous and connected vehicles.
Swift Navigation is a San Francisco-based tech firm redefining GNSS positioning technology for autonomous vehicles.
Standard GNSS positioning is three to five meters in depth which is not suitable for safety-critical systems requiring lane-level accuracy. For higher levels of autonomous capability, a vehicle needs to be able to determine its absolute location. To achieve this, high-precision localization is needed to get to accuracy down to the centimeter.
Swift’s partnership with Arm will deliver a high-integrity, high-accuracy GNSS positioning solution for silicon makers and Tier 1 and 2 auto suppliers to integrate precise positioning into the sensor suite.
Swift Navigation’s Starling is a GNSS positioning engine designed for just such automotive and autonomous vehicle applications. Starling’s software enhances the measurements for commercially available GNSS receivers to provide true precision and integrity capabilities. Starling is receiver-agnostic, so it is ideal for Arm customers as it works with a variety of automotive grade chipsets and inertial sensors.
Swift’s partnership with Arm will deliver a high-integrity, high-accuracy GNSS positioning solution for silicon makers and Tier 1 and 2 auto suppliers to integrate precise positioning into the sensor suite. (Image: Swift Navigation)
Swift and Arm are working together to provide developers of autonomous and connected vehicles a cost-effective, scalable and high-integrity positioning solution. Starling is designed to be compatible with industry leading silicon makers who build their solutions on Arm.
Starling works with a variety of GNSS measurements engines and is a hardware proven, end-to-end solution, tunable for the specific requirements of a customer’s platform. This partnership elevates the capabilities of the connected car and simplifies the integration of high-precision GNSS into Tier 1 and 2, Silicon and Platform and Automotive OEM vendors.
“We are pleased to join the ecosystem of Arm technology partners to deliver precise positioning solutions to its automotive and autonomous vehicle customers,” said Timothy Harris, chief executive officer of Swift Navigation. “This partnership opens up a broader audience of customers who can benefit from Swift’s positioning technology and builds on our mission to enable a future of autonomous vehicles.”
“As we strive toward an autonomous future, the requirements of the automotive market are changing, and a more solution-based approach is needed,” said Dipti Vachani, senior vice president and general Manager, automotive and IoT line of business, Arm. “The combination of Arm IP uniquely designed for automotive and Swift’s GNSS solution gives our partners another key component on the road to the effective deployment of autonomous vehicles at scale.”
Available for purchase today for Arm-based processors, the Starling positioning engine provides a rapid deployment, low total cost of ownership solution to enable widespread adoption of ADAS, connected car, C-V2X and autonomous solutions.
Interested parties should visit this website to get more information on using the Starling positioning engine on Arm-based devices.
The joint solution will be also be showcased at the IAA New Mobility World 2019 event from Sept. 10-15 at the Arm booth, Hall 5.0, stand A10, Frankfurt Messegelände.
SoftBank plans to introduce a centimeter-accurate, real-time satnav-based positioning service, specifically using Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), to guide autonomous vehicles across a range of industries in Japan. The company said it will install more than 3,300 control points at base stations across Japan to deliver centimeter-level accuracy over its mobile network coverage area to provide real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning.
Testing begins in July with a scheduled launch of commercial service by the end of November. Test partners include Yanmar Agribusiness Co., Ltd., a provider of autonomous assisted driving for agricultural machinery, Kajima Corporation, which performs construction site management with automatically controlled drones for aerial photography and monitoring, and SB Drive Corp., a provider of autonomous and assisted driving technology for buses.
SoftBank is developing proprietary low-cost GNSS receivers so that “new services and market expansion can be realized.” A Positioning Core System provided by ALES Corp. will generate correctional data based on signals received and transmitted by SoftBank’s own control points over SoftBank’s mobile communications network to agricultural and construction machinery, self-driving cars, drones and other equipment carrying GNSS receivers. The company expects that centimeter-level positioning can thus be done in real time.
In addition to control points at its own base stations, SoftBank will use the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan’s approximately 1,300 GPS-based control stations.
SoftBank is also developing services to enablec loud-based RTK positioning for devices without GNSS receivers. Cloud-based RTK will provide centimeter-level, location-based services for equipment that needs to be miniature and energy-efficient, such as infrastructure surveillance sensors and wearable devices.
SoftBank Group Corp. is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Tokyo. It owns operations in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, internet, technology services, finance, semiconductor design and more. It is the 36th largest public company in the world, and the 2nd largest in Japan.
ALES is a joint venture established by SoftBank and Enabler in July 2018. Enabler employs GNSS and related technologies to produce such products/services as a synchronization solution for mobile base stations for subway stations and a patented indoor positioning/time synchronization infrastructure platform in Japan.
Autotalks, a V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communication company, is gaining momentum in the Chinese market following the successful completion of the C-V2X field test with a Chinese technology giant.
The field trial evidenced Autotalks’ C-V2X capabilities on a public road, including 3GPP release 15 compliant transmit diversity, and remarkable communication range of over 2 kilometers with a nominal range of over 1.5 kilometers.
As part of its momentum in China, Autotalks is growing its Chinese partner ecosystem and hiring for its operation in this giant market. Autotalks is a member of IMT-2020, CAICV and China ITS Industry Alliance, working on standardization and testing of C-V2X towards mass deployment. The company has also launched a Chinese website.
China is a fast-growing region in the automotive and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) segments. LTE-V2X technology has been gaining strong momentum in China. In November 2018, Autotalks announced that it has recruited Xiaobing Yang, to lead Autotalks’ business development efforts in China out of Autotalks’ new branch in Beijing. Yang brings to Autotalks more than 25 years of experience in the Chinese telecom industry.
In 2018, Autotalks launched a global V2X solution supporting both DSRC and LTE-V2X (also known as C-V2X) based on its second-generation mature chipset with the intention of expanding its global footprint into China. Autotalks’ LTE-V2X direct communications (PC5) solution is separated from the cellular Network Access Device (NAD), resulting in a secure and cost-effective standalone LTE-V2X solution.
Autotalks announced in February that it has partnered with MediaTek. a global fabless semiconductor company that enables 1.5 billion connected devices a year. The two companies are cooperating on integrating V2X and telematics and have completed a joint reference design for Telematics Control Unit (TCU) integrated with a global V2X chipset.
The reference design is based on Autotalks’ global V2X chipset and MediaTek’s newest technology, an automotive-grade cellular modem SoC, enabling a secure, robust and cost-effective global TCU architecture.
Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined Representatives Dave Loebsack (D-IA) and Don Bacon (R-NE) in launching the Congressional GPS Caucus in March. This bipartisan, bicameral caucus will elevate the ever-increasing importance of GPS technologies to the U.S. economy and infrastructure. As evidence of that, today more than 3.3 million jobs in the United States rely heavily on GPS.
Agriculture is front and center in the states and districts these policymakers represent, and the cost savings as well as jobs and family incomes are noteworthy. Nationwide, GPS has led to $8.2 billion in savings through precision agriculture, while yielding increases in grain production across the country. Further, GPS has become an indispensable and reliable part of the country’s national infrastructure. Public and private investment in GPS-based technologies and services have produced a steady stream of innovations, making the U.S. a global leader in the sector.
The GPS Caucus will prioritize ensuring GPS signals remain continuously available, accurate, reliable and resilient. To better support the long-term health and future of GPS, the caucus plans to host educational briefings and technology demonstrations, in addition to advocating for policies that keep GPS at the forefront. On April 2, these efforts will kickoff with a “GPS 101” educational briefing on the Hill featuring remarks from Senator Duckworth, Representative Loebsack, Colonel Curtis Hernandez, US Air Force Director National Security Space Policy, National Space Council and industry leaders from Deere & Company, Garmin and Trimble.
To further reaffirm the critical importance of GPS, the GPS Caucus introduced concurrent resolutions in both the Senate and House. The resolutions outline the economic benefits of GPS, totaling more than $68 billion to the U.S. economy each year, and the sectors GPS technology supports, none of which would be possible without the contributions made by the men and women of the Air Force who maintain the GPS constellation.
As efforts to advance 5G, precision agriculture and smart cities continue, GPS will only become more valuable to modern-day operations and it remains critical that policymakers, companies and industry leaders alike, foster policy that keeps GPS at the forefront.
