ADAS kit enables eight cameras and sensor fusion

Visitors to the company’s stand at electronica 2016 saw the R-Car H3-based second generation kit with up to eight cameras. It realises next-generation electronic mirrors, which are cameras to check surroundings, as well as driver monitoring and surround view systems all at the same time.

The automotive cameras allow developers to collect data from the environment for sensor fusion. Sensor fusion combines and processes the collected information from automotive cameras and radars for vehicles to recognise surroundings for autonomous driving and ADAS applications, together with 360° surround view. Camera-based electronic mirrors will allow object detection, and viewing angles to be modified. 

The all-in-one ADAS view solution kit includes the company’s R-Car Starter Kit Premier automotive software development environment, which is based on the R-Car H3 SoC, as well as the required sample application software for ADAS application software development and calibration software to correct distortion of the images for surround view. The sample application software supports developers in the initial development period. Dynamic surround view can be achieved by using the sample application software in binary code and the GPU of the R-Car H3 that enables arbitrary viewpoints. Static surround view can be achieved without a GPU or CPU by using the calibration software that corrects image distortion and the sample software in source code. The software for static surround view uses Renesas’ image rendering (IMR) technology.

Up to eight minicube cameras from Integrated Micro-electronics use 1.3Mpixel automotive sensors from OmniVision Technologies. They are connected via a high speed Gbit multimedia serial link (GMSL) serialiser and a quad deserialiser from Maxim Integrated.

The R-Car H3 features Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR GX6650 GPU core. It allows 360° surround view with arbitrary viewpoints and high resolution picture composition, as well as detailed vehicle rendering.

IMR technology enables low-cost surround view with pre-defined viewpoints, in case the GPU has to be used for other applications or if system developers want to evaluate static surround view. The IMR is also used for zooming and perspective adjustment for electronic mirrors and driver monitoring cameras.

Video processing units in the R-Car H3 allow the composition of surround view with overlay of smart camera pictures at ultra-high definition resolution (UHD).

The ARM Cortex-A57/A53 cores provide 40,000 DMIPS enhanced processing for the application and computer vision implementations. OpenCL on the GPU provides software engineers the option to implement cognitive functionality, bringing additional safety features.

The kit is scheduled to be available from January 2017 and will include the ADAS Starter Kit Premier as well as four cameras, with four additional cameras available as an option.