High-speed data logger

“The validation of automated driver assistance systems and autonomous driving functions is one of the biggest challenges in the development of innovative mobility concepts,” reports Markus Trauth, CEO of ViGEM GmbH. For this purpose, huge amounts of data must first be recorded in field tests during the validation phase before the SOP (start of production). Test vehicles of well-known automobile manufacturers cover millions of kilometers to record the most diverse traffic, weather and environmental situations in different countries. Until a few years ago, the storage, visualization and transmission of such large, uncompressed amounts of data was unimaginable, and even today it still poses the highest technical demands to the developers of big data loggers.

With the CCA 9010 high-speed data loggers (Car Communication Analyzer) from the technology leader ViGEM, maximum data volumes can be recorded continuously and uncompressed in field tests, in the laboratory and on the test bench. In order to validate the automated driving functions, the loggers record the raw data of real driving scenarios taken from radar and lidar systems, from high-resolution cameras and from all standard automotive buses with a common time stamp. External acquisition units synchronized by gPTP (generic Precision Time Protocol) transmit the sensor and vehicle data to the logger via 10G Ethernet. Parallel to the logging on removable data storages with a storage capacity of up to 64 TB, the CCA 9010 can forward the data to a monitoring computer via a 10G Ethernet connection. The ROS nodes integrated in the logger firmware allow easy integration into a ROS development environment.

With more than 40 interfaces and a recording bandwidth of up to 25 Gbit/s, extremely large amounts of data can be recorded in a very short time. Even while driving, special situations can be highlighted with markers (user events) for later data analysis. In addition, selected data can also be recorded when triggered by various external events – with adjustable lead and follow-up time.

The recording capacity of a single device can be increased many times over by synchronizing several devices with the LoggerSync protocol. If, for example, three data loggers are used synchronously, a
total data rate of 75 Gbit/s can be recorded with the threefold number of recording interfaces.

Visualization of raw Image data rates up to 800 Mbit/s

The monitoring of such large amounts of data makes extremely high demands on the used visualization tools. If conventional solutions quickly reach their limits when monitoring big data, the solution presented at embedded world now allows the visualization of image data rates of up to 800 Mbit/s! 

The perfectly coordinated combination of a SerDes Logging Adapter (SLA) from AED Engineering and a high-performance CCA data logger 9010 from ViGEM enables the direct and uncompressed transfer of the recorded camera raw data to a ROS-system via 10G Ethernet for visualization (see info-graphic). Recorded situations can now be checked while driving.

Future mobility

The progress of the development of automated driver assistance systems and autonomous driving functions will depend on qualification and validation processes. For collecting, storing and transferring this big data, ViGEM developed comprehensive all-in-one solutions for customers in the automotive industry and cloud solution providers. They consist of CCA data loggers, robust removable CCA data storages and flexible CCA copy stations. After the transfer to the cloud, the huge amounts of recorded, uncompressed raw data have to be analyzed fast and efficiently in order to incorporate them into intelligent, reliable software solutions or automated driving functions.