GPR is showcasing its Ground Positioning Radar at this year’s ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo California. The system maps the unique, character-rich subterranean environment, providing insights into subsurface structures and uncovering hidden elements like road infrastructure, buried utilities and soil characteristics. According to Vanya Banjac, the company’s VP of marketing, these maps are protected by the ground, do not change and provide consistent and reliable ADAS and automated driving regardless of weather conditions, GPS availability and land markings.
“Traditional surface-based maps based on lidar and computer vision can be impacted by changing surface conditions, lighting variations and occlusions,” she explained. “However, integrating ground-penetrating radar technology taps into a realm of consistent and reliable data. This enables localization for autonomous driving in traditionally difficult environments like parking garages, off-road or in inclement weather. Furthermore, the system is affordable and non-intrusive to vehicle design.”
Explaining why precise localization is critical to consumers trusting and accepting AVs, she said, “It is the missing piece in consistent uptime and operations; 80% of drivers want their current advanced driver-assistance systems to work better. Weather, road markings and GPS signals are unreliable. GPR does not rely on these factors and provides the missing sensor modality in autonomy stacks for reliable operations that consumers can trust.”
She continued, “Current AV technologies, including lidar, forward-facing radar and camera-based systems, can only operate based on what they can ‘see’ in front of them and around them. These systems can be easily obstructed by snow, dirt and debris covering the vehicle’s sensors, limiting their ability to fully see what’s in their vicinity and prevent crashes. Without clear lane markings – in the event of snow, heavy rainfall or off-road conditions – or strong GPS signals, the typical sensors tracking vehicle location cannot function properly. These conditions are not an edge case. For reliable localization in all conditions, engineers must integrate a solution that provides non-stop uptime of ADAS and autonomous driving.”
When asked why GPR chose to exhibit its solutions at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo California, she said, “Santa Clara brings together some of the leading companies and minds in the mobility space.”
Visit GPR on Booth 115 to find out more.