Data storage specialist Quantum Corporation says that it is helping to accelerate all-terrain autonomous vehicle research at the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University (MSU).
CAVS collects vast amounts of unstructured data using Quantum R-Series Edge Storage, a high-performance, ruggedized solution purpose-built for capturing massive data volumes in edge environments. The data is generated by vehicles and used for further analysis and machine learning (ML) model development in the CAVS data center.
At the CAVS facility, which features a 55-acre off-road proving ground, test vehicles equipped with a variety of sensors collect a wide array of data about the outdoor terrain. This data is then used to create a digital twin of the environment for running driving simulations. These simulations are leveraged to create navigation software that guides AVs through the outdoor terrain.
Creating a digital twin of the environment requires high-quality data collected in the field. The CAVS team needed vehicle onboard storage systems that could flawlessly collect field data and enable engineers to quickly transfer that data to the large-scale centralized data center storage for simulations.
“We needed storage that could reliably collect critical sensor data as vehicles traverse rough trails and other challenging terrain, which Quantum R-series Edge Storage provides for us,” said Daniel Carruth, associate director for advanced vehicle systems, CAVS. “With Quantum, we can move data from a vehicle to the data center quickly and easily. We have an end-to-end data management workflow that lets us stay focused on the insights that all of this data can deliver.”
Integrating the Quantum R-Series Edge Storage into a single, shareable storage platform enabled CAVS engineers to make data readily available to multiple development organizations. To offload the collected vehicle data, technicians are able to remove the storage magazine from the in-car storage device and slide it into a data center chassis or use the 10-GbE network port for data offloading.
“Data is a critical component in supporting the continued growth and success of the autonomous vehicle market,” added Plamen Minev, technical director, AI and cloud, Quantum. “Working with the CAVS team is a wonderful opportunity for us to provide a data management solution that makes storing, moving and analyzing this critical field data simpler and more streamlined for the CAVS engineering team.”