Unity, a real-time 3D (RT3D) content platform provider for the gaming industry, is partnering with South Korea’s leading self-driving technology company Mando Co, Ltd, to develop front camera simulation technology for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). This is South Korea’s first collaboration between an automotive parts company and a game engine developer.
Mando supplies brake, steering and suspension systems and ADAS to global car makers including Hyundai, KIA Motors, GM and BMW. Its electronification of chassis technologies has seen it grown into a mobility integrated solution provider through advanced ADAS-based autonomous driving technologies. The company obtained an autonomous vehicle testing permit in the state of California in 2018, becoming the first Korean automobile company to do so in the USA. In 2019, Mando also successfully tested Level 4 autonomous driving, as it continues to make progress in independently developing a fully autonomous driving platform.
The collaborative project will see Mando utilize Unity’s platform to create a virtual reality simulator for training ADAS front cameras. This simulator will become a core component of Mando’s autonomous driving system, creating thousands of driving scenarios to pre-train the ADAS front camera.
For successful pre-training, high-quality graphics are required to ensure that the camera will learn and adapt to the simulations. Fast speed and ease of creating such diverse simulated environments are also crucial for the process. To accomplish this, Mando is working on promptly building simulation templates with numerous probability models and designing new driving scenarios with Unity.
An editor feature allows for the rearrangement of the virtual road environment, making it possible to edit and modify templates in real time.
The partnership plans to develop virtual sensor modules and enhance the compatibility between the simulator and other simulation tools, eventually integrating machine learning and a driving physics engine to fine-tune the performance of the simulator. In addition to this cooperation in technology, the two companies will also actively engage in joint marketing endeavors in various domestic and global events.
“We’re pleased to see Unity being utilized in the automotive industry and supporting innovation in self-driving technology,” said In-Sook Kim, country manager of Unity Korea. “We hope that our collaboration with Mando will allow us to safely and speedily introduce this futuristic technology of our dreams to the consumers.”
“Building bulk high-fidelity instances of actual road situations and using them for iterations of repeated learning are key in advancing the performance of any sensory peripheral to ensure that they accurately detect objects,” added Dr. Danny Lange, senior VP of AI and Machine Learning, Unity. “Unity supports fast and easy creation of high-quality synthetic data sets and simulations, making it an effective platform for developing and training sensory tools for ADAS.”
“A cutting-edge verification method is essential to get closer to full-autonomous driving faster,” concluded Hyung-jin Kang, ADAS BU R&D, Mando. “Mando and Unity’s 3D VR verification method makes the completion of artificial intelligence-based autonomous driving technology more efficient. AI will increase it to a higher level.”
Unity has previously collaborated with global IT corporations Microsoft and Baidu to support the testing of AI and deep learning for autonomous driving, as well as the development of simulation solutions that provide a virtual way of experiencing the performance of self-driving cars. Unity also continues to work on projects to innovate user experience and implement 3D designs with global car makers such as Hyundai, Kia Motors, Volvo, Audi and Volkswagen.