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By relocating the sensors to the SensorPods situated on the side-mounted mirrors, Kodiak has simplified the construct course of and basically improved the maintainability of the system. By having sensors situated in an easy-to-reach location on the mirrors, clients keep away from having to entry the roof to take care of sensors.
Kodiak Robotics, Inc., a number one self-driving trucking firm, at the moment launched its fifth-generation autonomous truck {hardware} platform which will increase sensor redundancy and GPU processing energy, and extra. Notably, Kodiak eliminated the roof-mounted “middle pod” sensor suite and relocated the front-facing Luminar Iris LiDAR and large field-of-view digital camera to every of Kodiak’s proprietary mirror-mounted SensorPodsTM. By integrating sensors into the SensorPods, and eschewing the “unibrow” sensor suite frequent within the autonomous trucking {industry}, Kodiak has unlocked quicker upfitting for purchasers, larger maintainability and serviceability, and higher notion functionality. The transfer additionally doubles the Kodiak Driver’s, the corporate’s self-driving expertise, LiDAR protection at lengthy vary.
By relocating the sensors to the SensorPods situated on the side-mounted mirrors, Kodiak has simplified the construct course of and basically improved the maintainability of the system. By having sensors situated in an easy-to-reach location on the mirrors, clients keep away from having to entry the roof to take care of sensors.
Roads are designed round a human driver’s line of sight. Kodiak’s SensorPods are additionally designed to position sensors on the identical top as a driver, maximizing street security and bettering notion. The SensorPods provide a greater twin vantage level, as they supply redundancy and visibility on both facet of the truck, versus the one vantage level above the cab. Within the occasion of a sensor injury, comparable to a rock or different piece of particles damaging a sensor, providing dual-redundant front-facing sensors will increase resiliency. An on-the-fly alternative of SensorPods, that are appropriate with any truck platform, might be carried out in as little as ten minutes, maximizing uptime and clients’ income era on account of elevated asset utilization. The broken SensorPod can then be returned to Kodiak for analysis and restore.
Kodiak’s already highly-modular {hardware} method now consists of fewer required modifications and contact factors. This permits more cost effective integration into vehicles, which marks a major step towards business deployment of the Kodiak Driver.
The Business’s Most Strong Sensor Array
The fifth-generation Kodiak truck improves upon the sensor array introduced as a part of its prior-generation platform. When eradicating the middle pod, the corporate added a second forward-facing LiDAR and extra digital camera so as to add redundancy within the left and proper SensorPods. The brand new truck will increase the overall variety of sensors on-board from 14 to 18, together with one new lidar and three new cameras—bringing the overall digital camera depend to 10. Two wide-angle cameras had been added to the hood-mounted mirrors to cowl blindspots. With the brand new sensor additions, Kodiak fifth-generation truck stays essentially the most lean and fully-redundant platform within the {industry}.
Kodiak’s long-range sensor suite consists of the next cut up evenly between the 2 side-mounted mirror SensorPods: f 4 ZF Full Vary Radar for redundancy; two Hesai 360-degree scanning LiDARs for side- and rear-view detection; two Luminar Iris LiDAR sensors; and eight cameras, which embody each large and slim field-of-views. The brand new truck consists of the not too long ago introduced Ambarella CV2 notion system-on-chip (SoC) which handles all digital camera information processing. The Ambarella CV2 SoC improves picture high quality for longer vary detections and unlocks improved dynamic vary for nighttime driving.
“Prospects and OEMs aren’t sensor consultants, and so they should not must be, which is why they consistently inform us they love our modular method that solves one of many greatest limitations to servicing and sustaining autonomous vehicles,” mentioned Don Burnette, Founder and CEO of Kodiak Robotics. “We took a platform that our clients already love and made it higher by including extra visibility, extra energy, and extra flexibility, finally transferring us nearer down the trail in direction of driverless deployment. By eradicating the sensors from the highest of the truck and incorporating them at a human driver’s line of sight, we now have designed a system for the true world. Moreover, having sensors on high of the cab is definitely very tough to service whereas on the street and requires specialised gear, which is almost unimaginable to search out roadside.”
Kodiak’s fifth-generation truck additionally consists of aerospace- and military-grade expertise. The principle connector for information and energy in Kodiak’s SensorPods and compute system is designed to be used in aviation, aerospace and army purposes. The elevated robustness of the {hardware} system is one other step ahead for Kodiak’s deployment-readiness.
Improved {Hardware} Stack Affords Higher Efficiency
Kodiak’s {hardware} stack is designed for 3 actions: sensing, by means of its SensorPods; considering, by means of its foremost compute; and appearing, which is managed by means of two onboard custom-designed security computer systems, the Kodiak Actuation Management Engine, or ACE.
Kodiak additionally diminished {the electrical} energy necessities for its fifth-generation truck, whereas concurrently bettering the processing energy of the system. Along with 130% extra GPU processing energy, the brand new system offers 60% extra central processing energy, and extra system redundancy. The diminished energy consumption allowed for a 50% discount within the measurement of the fifth-generation energy system, and likewise decreased cooling wants.
Kodiak can also be taking a modular method to constructing its computing system, simplifying the mixing of the system into the truck and making it simpler to handle when the vehicles are included right into a buyer’s fleet. Kodiak has consolidated its in-house compute system, networking, and energy distribution into one bodily unit, which might be constructed to accommodate the distinctive specs of every buyer, giving extra choices for integration. The high-performance compute {hardware} is manufactured by Crystal Group, a world chief in manufacturing army and ruggedized computer systems, and is designed to deal with the heavy and protracted vibrations onboard long-haul vehicles.
Like Kodiak’s fourth-generation truck, Kodiak’s fifth-generation truck consists of Cummins X15TM Sequence engines, and Bridgestone America’s smart-sensing tire expertise. The introduction of this new era platform comes throughout a interval of considerable progress for Kodiak. The corporate not too long ago introduced a 24-month United States Division of Protection (DoD) challenge to assist automate future U.S. Military floor automobiles. Developments made inside the scope of the challenge have served as the inspiration for the fifth-generation truck. Kodiak has not too long ago introduced partnerships with IKEA, Werner, Pilot Firm, Ahead and extra. For extra details about Kodiak, please go to https://kodiak.ai.
About Kodiak Robotics, Inc.
Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was based in 2018 to develop autonomous expertise that carries freight ahead — so individuals, companions, and the planet thrive. The corporate is growing an industry-leading expertise stack purpose-built for long-haul vehicles, making the freight {industry} safer and extra environment friendly. Kodiak’s distinctive modular {hardware} method integrates sensors right into a streamlined sensor-pod construction that optimizes for notion, scalability, and maintainability. The corporate delivers freight every day for its clients throughout the South, working autonomously on the freeway parts of the routes. Kodiak additionally leverages its business self-driving software program to develop, check and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Division of Protection. Be taught extra about Kodiak on the net at kodiak.ai, and on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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