ADAS technology solutions and application comparison

I wonder how many people still remember the movie "Knight Rider" that we grew up with and the unique black car KITT in it? I remember that the dream at that time was to have a car like KITT, with videophone and entertainment equipment in the car, equipped with scanning monitoring and satellite navigation equipment, able to see patients, weigh people, and be able to drive automatically when you are tired of driving, and be able to "swim" in the water, etc. All of these seemed so far away and so sci-fi at the time, but now many of KITT's functions have been turned into reality by us. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are the technological innovations after ABS (anti-lock braking system), airbags and stability control systems. It has turned some functions that were once only available to KITT into functions that most cars will have.

In China, after several years of rapid development, consumers have gradually shifted from the initial demand for basic transportation functions of automobiles to higher-level demands such as safety. More and more automakers are turning to electronic and high-tech solutions to solve safety problems, and high demand has also made automotive safety systems increasingly intelligent. Global automakers are also eager to provide car consumers with more and more advanced ADAS applications to meet the needs of various types of vehicles, not just high-end luxury cars where ADAS is already quite popular. In the future, ADAS applications will cover three car price ranges: entry-level, mid-range and high-end. To this end, this magazine specially interviewed several semiconductor manufacturers that provide ADAS application solutions to let everyone know more about the current mainstream ADAS application solutions.

Xilinx's Zynq platform solution

Xilinx is a traditional manufacturer of FPGA products and solutions. It recently launched the industry's first automotive-grade Zynq-7000 All Programmable System-on-Chip (SoC) platform that integrates an ARM dual-core Cortex-A9 MPCore processing system and a closely integrated FPGA on a single chip. This platform can help system manufacturers speed up the development time of advanced driver assistance applications such as surround vision, 3D surround vision, rear-view camera, dynamic calibration, pedestrian detection, rear lane departure warning and blind spot detection.

"Although consumers are very fond of ADAS applications, and the demand for it is strong and is in a continuous growth trend, the promotion speed of ADAS has not reached the expected level because of the huge development and manufacturing costs. But the main reason is that most current ADAS solutions use multiple chips and are almost completely designed from scratch. Moreover, this design result is one-time and cannot be reused. It can only support a single ADAS application. The Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC can bring high-intensity real-time processing capabilities and parallel processing capabilities for multiple advanced algorithms to ADAS applications, and provide diversified interfaces between sensors and vehicle communication backbones." Huang Wenjie, emerging business development manager of Xilinx Asia Pacific, said in an interview.

Huang Wenjie explained that in order to provide flexibility for ADAS and facilitate product upgrades, the industry must improve integration, optimize performance, and create a universal ADAS optimization platform to achieve appropriate-sized underlying components to ensure support for different applications and enable customization. This is because a highly integrated, fully programmable single-chip platform can not only reduce unit costs, improve economies of scale, and shorten development cycles, but also change the landscape of ADAS development and ultimately ensure the popularization of ADAS.

The Zynq platform meets all these requirements. From a technical perspective, Zynq can develop ADAS solutions with a single chip. The Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC has greatly improved performance, facilitates various bundled applications, and enables scalability between different product lines. Secondly, the Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC implements an ADAS-optimized platform, allowing automakers and automotive electronics suppliers to add their own IP and ready-made IP provided by the Xilinx automotive ecosystem to the platform, thereby creating a unique and differentiated system.

From a market perspective, the commonality of current and future ADAS applications is the combination of multiple cameras and ultrasonic sensors with dedicated real-time processing systems. The Zynq-7000 has great flexibility in the areas of video/image capture; video/image processing; custom algorithms/accelerators; connectivity; and encoding/decoding.

"Although Xilinx does not directly provide products to automotive OEMs, its partners are already using the Zynq platform to develop ADAS products," said Huang Wenjie. "Xilinx Alliance Program members Green Hills Software, eSOL, Lauterbach GmbH, etc. have all adopted Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC for product development."

In China, the demand for ADAS applications is also continuously developing, and will gradually upgrade from optional functions to necessary equipment. Huang Wenjie believes that Xilinx's flexible programmable SoC Zynq-7000 will become an ideal platform to promote such applications. After Chinese companies master this platform technology, they will be able to develop low-cost, high-performance, and highly integrated ADAS solutions suitable for the Chinese environment more quickly, and promote the comprehensive promotion and popularization of this application.

ADI Vision ADAS Solution

Unlike Xilinx, which uses FPGA as the core development device, ADI's ADAS main core device is DSP. ADI's vision-based ADAS system provides lane departure warning, traffic sign recognition, intelligent headlight control, object detection/classification, pedestrian detection and other functions. Radar-based systems have similar functions, and can also provide front/rear parking assistance, safe vehicle distance warning, lane change assistance, blind spot detection, collision mitigation braking system, full-speed range adaptive cruise control and other functions.

The core of vision-based advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) is to detect environmental information around the vehicle through vision or radar technology, process it through DSP, and then take corresponding warning or intervention measures. Some just warn the driver, while others take some intervention measures such as braking. By installing rear-view, front-view, side-view cameras and vision processing ECUs, multiple functions can be realized to help drivers prevent risks in advance.

The increasing popularity of ADAS technology applications is not only due to competition among automakers, but also due to government regulations. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is developing a policy to force the installation of rear-view cameras. At the same time, new regulatory requirements for rear-view cameras, such as the 2014 European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) automatic emergency braking system program, have also put greater pressure on the automotive industry to find ways to implement systems with high computing and network intensity without increasing the unit vehicle bill of materials (BOM) cost. For system architecture designers of ADAS system OEMs and automotive electronics suppliers, this requires reducing costs while finding ways to meet system requirements and support intelligent networks and real-time image-vision functions.

The first dedicated ADAS vision processor provided by ADI has a relatively high performance-to-power ratio and cost-effectiveness, and meets the new pedestrian protection requirements of NCAP. Once the ADAS vision application market segment is deployed on a large scale, it will require more than just processing power. To this end, ADI has two targeted dedicated ADAS vision processors (BF608/9), which support parallel processing of up to 5 functions, image processing capabilities of up to one million pixels, a frame rate of 30FPS (frames per second), and power consumption of less than 1.3W@105°C . As the goal is set for market deployment in 2014 and beyond, ADI has integrated ISO26262 compliant hardware support capabilities. In functional systems, BF60x can typically reduce system costs by up to 30%.

Xu Zhibin, marketing manager of ADI's automotive electronics industry in China, believes that the challenges facing ADAS technology at this stage mainly come from the video acquisition and processing links. As the resolution of cameras tends to be higher and higher, the number of cameras increases, and the number of functions of each system continues to increase, all these trends have high requirements for semiconductor manufacturers in analog technology, high-frequency technology and digital processing. At the same time, the requirements for the power consumption cost ratio of signal processing are more stringent. He said, "ADI has long-term and close cooperation with many automobile manufacturers and automotive parts suppliers in the field of ADAS. Our vision-based and radar-based ADAS solutions have been mass-produced on many mid-to-high-end models. At the same time, we attach great importance to the development of new technologies and new markets, and are promoting the popularization of ADAS technology. Especially in China, the automobile market is booming, and many consumers are paying more and more attention to the importance of driving safety, and they also expect new technologies to improve automobile safety and comfort. We believe that ADI's high-performance, cost-effective, and low-power ADAS technology and products can well meet the needs of the Chinese and global markets."

Freescale ADAS Solutions

Freescale mainly focuses on ADAS applications of forward vision (lane departure and tracking, blind spot detection), rear vision (smart parking and ranging), and surround vision (parking). Freescale has designed many microcontroller products for future ADAS systems.

For example, the SCP2200 series using CogniVue's APEX IP technology, the SCP2200 solution minimizes bill of materials costs and miniaturizes cameras by integrating high-density memory. The parallel image processing architecture of this series of products can process image data simultaneously, which means that it can achieve high-performance image data processing at a lower clock frequency than the products currently offered by competitors. In addition to this high performance, it also has Freescale's market-leading power consumption and cost-effectiveness advantages. Together with the attached resource library, as well as hardware and software development kits, it provides automakers with a comprehensive set of tools that enable them to design smart camera applications, helping them to bring solutions to market more quickly.

For future ADAS and infotainment systems, due to the requirements of information volume and high resolution, a higher bandwidth bus is needed to solve the problem. Ethernet is the best solution. MPC5604E MCU and i.MX6 series multimedia processors provide a good surround view solution based on Ethernet. MPC5604E can transmit the camera data to the central processor i.MX6 through Ethernet. The i.MX6 series includes single-core, dual-core and quad-core families based on the ARM Cortex-A9 architecture, combined with a powerful ecosystem, and is an ideal platform for developing terminal equipment combinations based on a single hardware design. It has a very powerful ability to process images and can quickly provide current information. Freescale, OminiVision, and Broadcom launched the world's first surround view parking system based on Ethernet.

Freescale senior product manager Xi Yunxia said, "Freescale's current mature customers include BOSCH, CONTI, TRW, Valeo, Denso, Delphi, etc." At the same time, she also pointed out, "The challenges facing ADAS technology include improving the chip's own fast and high-capacity computing processing capabilities for processing images and complex applications; it needs to consume lower power to avoid heat dissipation problems; and it needs to be small in size so that it can be closely integrated with other components in the system for easy installation. The overall requirements are fast processing, high capacity, low power consumption, and small size."

Fujitsu 360-degree panoramic system solution

Fujitsu's ADAS technology mainly involves the combination of cameras and sensors to achieve image recognition assistance and approaching target detection. The main application areas include 360-degree three-dimensional panoramic assistance, visual parking assistance, driving blind spot monitoring, safe door opening, and identification of obstacles and pedestrians around the direction of the car. Currently, Fujitsu's partners use the Emerald core chip MB86R11 to provide turnkey mass production solutions.

Fujitsu's 360-degree panoramic system solution uses 3D modeling and unique graphics synthesis algorithms to build multiple virtual three-dimensional perspectives around the car body, and combines the car body CAN bus to achieve automatic perspective animation zooming and switching. As a visual aid for the driver, the car is equipped with a synthesis system for 4 camera images, but previous technologies can only synthesize 2D images, and therefore can only display specific perspectives. The 360-degree panoramic system solution can synthesize images from 4 cameras onto a 3D model, so that all-round scenes can be displayed from any perspective. Previous systems projected camera images onto a 2D plane, which could only show a bird's-eye view from above, and sometimes it was difficult to distinguish surrounding vehicles and pedestrians. The 360-degree panoramic system projects images onto a three-dimensional curved surface, which can change the viewing angle at will, and can fully show the scene you want to see, thereby improving recognizability.

In terms of the technology of approaching target image detection, Fujitsu uses flexible time frames to collect 2 different graphics, which can detect targets of about 60 meters, while traditional graphic recognition can only reach 20 meters. Fujitsu's ADAS applications include visual assistance and recognition assistance. Visual assistance provides drivers with a more three-dimensional and wide viewing range, reducing the blind spot range; recognition assistance detects targets approaching from the rear or side, reminds drivers of the potential danger of changing lanes, and can also prompt whether it is safe to open the car door after parking.

Ding Jie, automotive electronics product manager at Fujitsu, said in an interview, "Fujitsu's current customers are still in the process of design-in. In 2014, everyone in the market will be pleasantly surprised to see that large automakers will launch a number of new models based on the Fujitsu MB86R11 system."

When talking about the technical challenges currently faced by ADAS technology, Ding Jiezao said, "The main technical challenges currently faced by ADAS are how to achieve better integration of multiple latest technologies and innovation of image synthesis algorithms, and to provide a safer, more comfortable and cost-effective driving assistance system based on the latest camera video technology, graphics processor technology, latest sensor technology and radar-based technology." In addition, he is also very optimistic about the prospects of China's ADAS market. "In the Chinese automobile market, we expect that ADAS technology will first be welcomed by end consumers in three applications: visual parking assistance, 360-degree three-dimensional panoramic assistance and driving blind spot monitoring. The market explosion point may be around 2015, with the original equipment market taking the lead, and the aftermarket will also have great opportunities."

Summarize

Among the four ADAS application solution providers interviewed, although their core components are different and their design solutions have different focuses, they all have a consistent attitude towards the trend that ADAS technology will evolve from passive safety to active safety, and have proposed their own solutions to reduce costs.

With the rapid development of the mid-to-high-end automobile market and the significant improvement in the safety awareness of the government and automobile consumers, ADAS applications, which once served the niche high-end market, have gained momentum for rapid development. In particular, with the decline in platform and solution costs, ADAS applications and sensor platform configurations have rapidly penetrated from high-end automobiles to mid-range and even entry-level automobile models. For automobile OEM manufacturers, after passive safety systems and infotainment equipment, ABS, ESP, etc. have become standard equipment in current automotive electronics, advanced active safety systems such as ADAS can also serve as a value-added highlight for product differentiation.

According to the report, 70% of cars currently have rear-view function, 30% of high-end cars have front-view function, and this proportion is expected to reach 60% by 2015. Therefore, ADAS application will be popularized in the low-end and mid-end car market. Coupled with the Chinese government's strong promotion of automobile safety regulations, the application of ADAS technology in China's automotive electronics market will surely have a big growth. Major Chinese OEMs, including local brands, have been actively preparing in this regard. In the near future, China will have more cars with ADAS system features.

Figure 1: Zynq for ADAS applications.

Figure 2: Combination technique with four cameras.