Electronics integration and development specialist b-plus has released its ProAI Measurement Data Interface (ProAI MDI), which it says enables extraction of raw data from ZF’s ProAI, a central server platform.
The system allows data to be decoupled, without loss and with a time stamp, from all sensors on a vehicle, with the data then securely outputted via an integrated 10Gb ethernet interface.
With centralization and fusion of data a key factor in the functionality of algorithms for autonomous driving, being able to reliably interrogate said data is a vital tool for development engineers. b-plus says this was the reason behind the creation of an extension to ProAI, specifically for the development of functions geared toward AI-compatible computing platforms.
According to the company, data from sensors, vehicle interfaces and internal processes of the ZF ProAI system are recorded with the help of an MDI (Measurement Data Interface). This data can then be used for verification and simulation purposes, for example software in the loop and hardware-in-the-loop applications.
It explains that an MDI collects the data from various ECU interfaces and forwards it to a recording system (BRICK, also from b-plus) via a common interface (2×10 GigE data downstream) for data acquisition. The ProAI MDI is based on b-plus’s existing measurement technology found in its MDILink system, which serves as a platform for the decoupling of unaltered measurement data from the vehicle.
In addition to the decoupling of data streams in hardware applications, it is also often necessary to route data from internal processes in the operating system of a vehicle’s central computer outward for analysis. This provides the necessary transparency to observe process run times and the state of an operating system during validation, or to provide statistics on functions close to the raw data stream. b-plus says the MDS reduces the complexity involved in extraction of such data and offers a safe and easy way to keep a close watch on the domain ECU for development.
MDS are embedded in the respective functions in the ECU code and forward the internal ECU data to the measurement system for analysis via a secure protocol. There, it can be evaluated parallel to the raw data, so that developers receive a fast, 360° data overview of the entire platform and can focus on function development.