Tag: driverless

High-Tech, ADAS, Autonomous Vehicle & Connected Car News

NEXYAD Automotive & Transportation Newsletter #8, March the 24th, 2016



Headlines :

– Nexyad has just been rated by Early Metrics : We got Three Stars

– The Ultimate Solution for Insurance Companies that need Onboard Risk Assessment : SafetyNex

– Obstacle Detection using ObstaNex BiCam v1.0 : Rear Vision Demo

– Road Detection using RoadNex on Smartphone Camera (IOS,Android, Windows Phone)

– Future Presence of Nexyad on Congresses & Exhibitions (ADAS, Autonomous Cars & Insurance)

– Nexyad in Media

– Meeting with French Senator Claude NOUGEIN



Nexyad has just been rated by Early Metrics :
We got Three Stars

Early Metrics, first rating agency for startups gave three stars to NEXYAD.
The audit of NEXYAD has been ordered by a major industrial company of Automotive. The founders, the project, the market and the financial statement of NEXYAD were rated 75/100.
NEXYAD is then in the 20% highest rates ever given by Early Metrics.

Early Metrics
More informations : Early Metrics



The Ultimate Solution for Insurance Companies that need Onboard Risk Assessment : SafetyNex

. WHY TESTED SOLUTIONS ALL FAILED (ACTUARIES SAY) ?
. WHY SOLUTIONS BASED ON “SEVERE BRAKING”, “VELOCITY IN CURVE”, “ACCELERATIONS” … HAVE STRICTLY NO CHANCE TO WORK ?
. WHAT TO DO TO GET A RISK ASSESSMENT MODULE THAT WORKS? (Presentation of a disruptive solution)

Read the paper here.
Version française

Launch of SafetyNex Campaign :
Commercial SafetyNex



Obstacle Detection using ObstaNex BiCam v1.0 :
Rear Vision Demo

Nexyad runs two monovision-based obstacle detection modules (ObstaNex V2.1), and developed a data fusion algorithm that reshapes stereo.
This solution still can work in monovision when one camera is off.
In this example, we installed cameras in the place of rearview Mirror on a van.


Detection of pedestrian near the vehicle



Road Detection using RoadNex on Smartphone & RT-Maps

Road Detection using Smartphone Camera (IOS, Android, Windows Phone) : Nexyad Team validated that RoadNex works in real time on smartphone !
Otherwise, a new release of Nexyad Road Detection and software module is available on RT-Maps (by Intempora). RoadNex v2.3 (32 & 64 bits).

RoadNex Smartphone
Soon available on IOS, Android and Windows Phone.



Future Presence of Nexyad on Congresses & Exhibitions (ADAS, Autonomous Cars & Insurance)

Connected Car Insurance Europe 2016
Day 2 : April 13th1st 15:00 – Exclusive Nexyad Presentation by CEO Gérard Yahiaoui
The Ultimate Solution for Insurance Companies that need Onboard Risk Assessment : SafetyNex
Why tested solutions all failed (actuaries say) ?
Why solutions based on severe braking, velocity in curve, accelerations… have strictly no chances to work ?
What to do to get a risk assessment module that works ? (presentation of a disruptive solution)


Autonomous Car Test & Developement
Day 2 : June 1st 09:30 – Building a relevant validation database for camera-based ADAS
Gérard Yahiaoui, President and CEO, Nexyad, France
Validation of camera-based artificial vision systems applied on open world is a very complex issue. An HD colour camera may generate more than 65 000 power 2 000 000 different images (information theory), so it is not possible to test every possible message. We propose a deterministic approach for building a validation database using the AGENDA methodology that was developed and published in the 1990s for neural network database (learn and test) design.


Active Safety Munich
Nexyad will be present on a booth with Groupement ADAS.
Groupement ADAS is a Team of innovative companies with over 20 years experience in the field of technologies used in driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles (design, implementation and integration of ADAS in vehicles for safety features, driver assistance, partial delegation to the autonomous vehicle). Members of the groupements propose complementary expertise, tools and test equipment (including test tracks) to take-up your challenging projects covering vehicle electronics, vehicle dynamics, command/control, HMI, perception, computer vision, data-fusion, communication, eco-driving… Groupement ADAS members are: CAR&D , FH Electronics, GlobalSensing Technologies, Intempora, Nexyad, Nomadic Solutions, Sherpa Engineering and Transpolis. It is coordinated by the French MOV’EO cluster.




Nexyad in Media

“En route pour la voiture autonome” – On the Way to Autonomous Car

LePoint

The french weekly “Le Point” on February 11th released a special section on the city of Saint Germain en Laye near Paris. The journalist Valerie Peiffer has devoted a page to Nexyad.

To Read More.



Meeting with French Senator Claude NOUGEIN

18 Feb 2016 :
NEXYAD president CEO Gerard YAHIAOUI, and a panel of SMEs founders were invited by Isabelle STHEMER of DojoGroup, in Paris, and could exchange points of views about economics and small business development with French Senator Claude NOUGEIN.

Gérard Yahiaoui and Senator Claude Nougein
The main purpose was to share ideas that may enhance SMEs performance and French competitivity.


Gérard Yahiaoui, Nexyad CEO
Gérard Yahiaoui in a very casual discussion.


Senator Claude Nougein
The Senator Claude NOUGEIN (here) that dares to talk to the base for a better understanding of the micro economy in the country. Quite unusual in France and very important !
Thank you Monsieur le Senateur !

Gérard Yahiaoui, Nexyad CEO speaker at
Autonomous Vehicle – Test & Development Symposium 2016

STUTTGART 31 may – 2 june 2016

Test and Validation Strategies for Autonomous Vehicles Room B

june 1st – 09:30 – Building a relevant validation database for camera-based ADAS

Validation of camera-based artificial vision systems applied on open world is a very complex issue. An HD colour camera may generate more than 65 000 power 2 000 000 different images (information theory), so it is not possible to test every possible message. We propose a deterministic approach for building a validation database using the AGENDA methodology that was developed and published in the 1990s for neural network database (learn and test) design.

7 companies to launch driverless cars by 2020

New post on Nexyad-ADAS Solutions blog

NEXYAD Intelligence : trends of driverless cars in 2020

We already showed you when you will be able to buy a driverless car using predictions from research companies and futurists. Since that article was published in July, automakers have been announcing when they anticipate to release their driverless vehicles. This was mostly done to ride the viral wave after Google’s driverless car video was released. So, which company is going to be first to deliver an autonomous model to showrooms?

We’ve grouped companies into four categories:

1.Expected to launch a driverless car by 2020
2.Expected to launch a driverless car after 2020
3.Developing a driverless car, but no official launch date
4.No expected launch of a driverless car

to read more http://www.nexyad-adas.com/archives/2016/01/18/33221555.html

NEXYAD made functional analysis of driverless car and focused on reliability and robustness. Then this high-tech SME (that already developed an autonomous vehicle in 2007 with other SMEs such as Induct, for the DARPA Challenge : team “Blue Froggie”) proposes software modules that may help (available for sale) :

RoadNex for Road Detection
ObstaNex for Obstacles Detection
VisiNex Onboard for Visibility Measurement
SafetyNex for Road Safety

Please choose Products in the menu above for further information

Economic Intelligence presentation on Nexyad-ADAS blog

NEXYAD always looking at surveys about ADAS and driverless cars market … Here is a relevant study about Automotive Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Market (2015-2025), by ReportBuyer.com

The Next Step Towards Autonomous, Self-Driving & Driverless Cars

LONDON, May 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Report Details

In many ways, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are the first step on the road to semi-autonomous or fully-autonomous self-driving and driverless vehicles. In 2015, Park Assistance, Surround-View Cameras, and Adaptive Cruise Control applications dominate the ADAS market; however, the penetration into passenger cars is relatively low despite the increasing rate of installations into the premium car segment manufacturers.
Often these are fitted in isolation, and even where multiple systems are fitted in a vehicle, great care is taken to ensure that these systems are perceived only as assisting the driver (who must remain fully alert) rather than taking over his role. As the number and abilities of these systems increases, the situation will move further along a continuum from driver assistance to in effect driver substitution, meaning that the driver would no longer be required to be alert and instead the onus would fall on the vehicle to warn the driver when his input was required, bringing him back to a state of full alertness.

To read more : http://www.nexyad-adas.com/archives/2015/12/31/33118647.html

ROBUSTNESS OF NEXYAD SOFTWARE MODULE
FOR ROAD DETECTION : RoadNex

ROBUSTNESS OF NEXYAD SOFTWARE MODULE FOR ROAD DETECTION : RoadNex

By NEXYAD

Detection of the road, detection of the lane, in front of the vehicle is now a « must-have »
for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and of course for Autonomous Cars too.
Every R&D team is able to show cases of good detection. The difference between different
modules is robustness : ability to work in many cases (almost every cases).

For instance, robustness consideration led many big Automotive firms to interger the MOBILEYE
detection system : jus because MOBILEYE is more robust than detection systems developed by
those big firms. And robustness is not a matter of deployment : you won’t get a more robust
module is you put 10 000 developers on the project. You need time, big amount of data, and
« smart ideas ».

Note : This robustness definition leads to question on ADAS validation (« almost » every case is
not that well defined … how could we put some maths on those words). NEXYAD has been
developing an applied maths-based methodology for ADAS validation and is currently
recording a validation data base that will be soon available for free worldwide on the internet.

But let’s go back to road detection modules comparison.

There is another difference between road detection systems : do they need white markings
or are they able to work even without markings ?

NEXYAD founders has been working on road detection since the beginning of the 90’s and never
stopped (*). The NEXYAD team is one of the moste experienced team in the world about road detection.
That actually makes the difference, and RoadNex is a module that would take long to develop by
other teams. RoadNex is currently available on PC (windows, Linux) in the real time framework
RT-MAPS. RoadNex will be soon available :
. on electronic device of an Automotive Tier One Company
. on smartphones (so it works in real time on a smartphone usual processor ! try to compare to other modules)
(*) publication at a scientific congress in France in 1993 :
“Texture-based Image Segmentation for Road Recognition with Neural Networks”, G. Yahiaoui, M. de Saint Blancard,
Sixth international conference on neural networks and their industrial & cognitive applications NeuroNîmes93, EC2,
Nîmes, 1993,

In order to have an idea of what robustness means, here are some case used to test RoadNex :
RoadNex01
RoadNex02
https://i0.wp.com/nexyad.net/Automotive-Transportation/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/RoadNex03.jpg?w=1170
RoadNex04
RoadNex05
RoadNex06
RoadNex08
RoadNex07
RoadNex09
RoadNex10

How many kilometers should you drive to sample those few road scenes variations ?

For more information : https://nexyad.net/Automotive-Transportation/?page_id=412

RoadNex v2.2 Scooter passing by in City Traffic

RoadNex v2.2 Road Detection – Scooter passing by in City Traffic

RoadNex v2.2 Road Detection – Scooter passing by in City Traffic
RoadNex detecting the lane on the road with or without markings.
Here, see the red line that reduces with scooters and cars; and the red surface highlighted which stops with scooters and cars, telling us it’s not road anymore, so detecting obstacles in negative.
The green Arrow shows the possible direction to follow.

Nexyad provides modules for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) : some of those modules such as RoadNex road detection or ObstaNex obstacles detection are competitors of the famous modules of the company Mobileye.

RoadNex v2.2 Road Detection for ADAS : Green Desert Track

NEXYAD RoadNex v2.2 Road Detection for ADAS : Green Desert Track
RoadNex detects the lane and the road surface and does not depend on the level of equipment of road infrastructure. Example here, on a dirt track in the middle of nowhere…



RoadNex v2.2 Road Detection for ADAS on Road at Night

Nexyad RoadNex v2.2 Road Detection for ADAS on Road at Night
RoadNex detecting the lane and the surface of the road at night when the light are on.

Nexyad provides modules for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) : some of those modules such as RoadNex road detection or ObstaNex obstacles detection are competitors of the famous modules of the company Mobileye.

RoadNex v2.2 Road with markings on both sides

RoadNex v2.2 Road with markings on both sides.
RoadNex detecting the lane on road and detecting the surface of the road with strong sun light on front of the car and the camera…

Nexyad provides modules for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) : some of those modules such as RoadNex road detection or ObstaNex obstacles detection are competitors of the famous modules of the company Mobileye.

RoadNex v2.2 Desert Track

RoadNex v2.2 Desert track
RoadNex detecting the lane on the desert track : sand road, no markings, stones, etc…
Contrast of colors is very poor, detection is still fine.

Nexyad provides modules for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) : some of those modules such as RoadNex road detection or ObstaNex obstacles detection are competitors of the famous modules of the company Mobileye.

USING NEXYAD ADAS MODULES
FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE AND SAFETY/RISK ESTIMATION



USING NEXYAD ADAS MODULES FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE AND SAFETY/RISK ESTIMATION

by NEXYAD


INTRODUCTION

The company NEXYAD developped software modules for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems :
. RoadNex (Road detection) : lane detection, detection of the borderlines of drivable area in the lane, detection of the surface of drivable area in the lane.
Sensor : camera (color)

. ObstaNex (Obstacles detection) : obstacles detection (if they have a vertical dimension or – inclusive – if they have their own movement)
Sensor : camera (N&B or color), accel, gyro

. VisiNex onboard (weather visibility measurement) : visibility measurement (quality and distance)
Sensor : camera

. SafetyNex : onboard road safety / risk estimation
Sensor : navigation map, gps, accel or car speed

Those modules were made to develop very efficient ADAS.
There are many ways of comining those modules, depending on the function that should be developped.

LANE KEEPING AND AUTOMATIC BRAKING : FOR CAR MANUFACTURERS AND TIER ONE COMPANIES

For this function, modules may be integrated in a rather complex way :
Nexyad Suite 1
Such an application needs to know where it works and where it doesn’t work (reliability). For that, VisiNex helps because it measures weather visibility and the nit is possible to know in which context artificial vision algorithms are efficient or not. It is also possible to switch setting parameters of artificial vision based algorithms using visibility characteristics, in order to expand the range of good performance of the global system (this is robustness).

NEXYAD applies a validation methodology called AGENDA (see papers in CESA Automotive 2014 in Paris and in SATETYWEEK 2015 in Aschaffenburg). This methodology is the onlt approach that allows to know what the system is supposed to do in a functional point of view, with measurable characterisctics of road scenes.
NEXYAD of course uses the NEXYAD ADAS validation data base : a part of this validation data base for artificial vision-based ADAS will be soon online for free (usable by every researcher or engineer in the world).

Note : the AGENDA methodology also provides a method to measure the similarity of a road scene in the validation data base anda current road scene : this is applied to estimate a confidence score.

SAFETY / RISK ESTIMATION FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES

SafetyNex measures the adequation of driving to road infrastructure characteristics.
It generates then a risk if the driver goes too fast when approaching a crossing road or a dangerous curve.
Of course, a poor visibility should lead the driver to drive slower.
In addition, there could be auxiliary inputs that would tell SafetyNex if there are obstacles on the pathway :
Nexyad Suite 2
This scheme is the same than the previous one but the outputs of RoadNex and ObstaNex are used INSIDE the scheme (they don’t provide an output of the global scheme).

DEMOS OF NEXYAD MODULES



REFERENCES

Validation of Advanced Driving Assistance Systems by Gérard Yahiaoui & Nicolas Du Lac
CESA Paper by Gérard Yahiaoui & Pierre Da Silva Dias
Road detection for ADAS and autonomous vehicle
Using the NEXYAD road detection (RoadNex) to make obstacles detection more robust
Real Time Onboard Risk Estimation Correlated with Road Accident
Visibility Measurement for ADAS and Autonomous Vehicle