From InvenSense: "TDK announces Coursa Drive, the world's first high-precision inertial-aided positioning software for autonomous vehicles"

MEMS Sensors

• Inertial-only decimeter-precise positions provided during short GNSS or perception system outages/uncertainties
• High-rate, 100 Hz position and orientation updates supplied to the autonomous vehicle (AV) system
• GNSS-agnostic software solution offers flexible integration for full-stack AV solution providers
• Offline mode enhances accuracy for High Definition (HD) map building and maintenance applications
• Coursa Drive is being integrated with key AV platform partners for demonstration to OEMs in Q12019

January 8, 2019

TDK Corporation (TSE:6762) announces today the launch of InvenSense Coursa Drive software, the world’s first inertial-aided positioning solution for AV platform developers. A high-performance extension of the InvenSense Positioning Library (IPL) that has provided sensor-aided positioning to over 50million devices worldwide, Coursa Drive enhances inertial-only vehicle positioning to <0.2% of distance traveled. These precise levels of accuracy are critical to maintaining decimeter lane-level vehicle positioning in challenging GNSS/perception system environments.

Coursa Drive’s inertial navigation system (INS) calibrates using absolute position inputs from either high accuracy GNSS receivers or from perception-based systems (camera, radar, lidar) with HD maps. In real time, Coursa Drive provides high-rate, 100 Hz delta positions and orientation to the AV system, complementing the lower-rate position references from GNSS and perception systems. For improved system fault-tolerance, Coursa Drive can provide decimeter position precision for short periods when the GNSS or perception systems are uncertain or unavailable.

For non-real-time applications such as HD map creation and maintenance, Coursa Drive’s offline mode reprocesses INS data at two to three times higher accuracy than real-time mode, providing HD map companies alternative position references to verify HD map accuracy, even without GNSS, for up to 60seconds.

“Coursa Drive delivers vehicle dead reckoning accuracy equivalent to high-end systems costing thousands of dollars,” said Mike Housholder, Senior Director of the TDK InvenSense Location Software and Services Business. “Our cost-effective software solution will help AV platform and Tier 1 vehicle manufacturers scale beyond prototype vehicles to high-volume mass production.”

Coursa Drive provides AV platform developers with maximum flexibility for system integration. The solution is platform agnostic and can operate on Cortex-M4F-class microcontrollers, or higher, and supports most dual-frequency GNSS receivers. The Coursa Drive API specifications are available upon request.

Coursa Drive is thoroughly tested and characterized using the InvenSense line of automotive-grade IMUs, including the IAM-20680 and IAM-20680HP, as well as several industrial grade IMUs. Coursa Drive is available now for select early partners and customers.

TDK and its group companies offering a comprehensive portfolio of sensors, electronic components and solutions for mobile, wearables, AR/VR, automotive, IoT and industrial applications will be at CES 2019, showcasing the Coursa Drive solution, along with additional innovative sensor solutions, in Booth #30306, Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 3, January 8-11, Las Vegas, Nev. For additional information, please visit www.invensense.com/technology/location/ or contact InvenSense Sales at sales@invensense.com.

Glossary

• AV: Autonomous Vehicles
• IPL: InvenSense Positioning Library
• IMU: Inertial Measurement Unit
• GNSS: Global Navigation Satellite System
• Cortex M4F: One of a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processors

Main applications

• Level 2 to Level 5 advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS)
• Robotaxis
• Trucking
• Precision agriculture

Key features

• World’s first high-precision inertial-aided positioning software for AVs
• Inertial-only decimeter precise positions provided during short GNSS or perception system outages/uncertainties
• High-rate, 100 Hz position and orientation updates supplied to the AV system
• GNSS-agnostic software solution offers flexible integration for full-stack AV solution providers
• Unique offline mode further enhances accuracy by two to three times for HD map building and maintenance applications

Source: https://www.invensense.com/news-media/tdk-announces-coursa-drive-the-worlds-first-high-precision-inertial-aided-positioning-software-for-autonomous-vehicles/ 

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