Hyundai develops "Vision Pulse" sensor fusion with lidar and UWB

Assistance functions in cars rely on reliable automatic environment detection as close to real-time as possible. Anyone who has used such systems knows, however, that they are not always correct in their assessment. Nevertheless, the industry's hope is to increasingly support the driver with these capabilities and to replace them entirely in the future. Like all major players, the Hyundai Group, with its automotive brand Kia, is also diligently working on perfecting assisted driving and is introducing a system called “Vision Pulse.” Since every currently known method for determining location and capturing the environment works with errors under certain conditions, multiple techniques are used simultaneously so that they complement each other with their specific advantages and disadvantages. This is somewhat generally referred to as “sensor fusion.”

Reliable and centimeter-accurate

Positioning of other road users using lidar has long proven effective, even though this expensive system can also be error-prone in borderline situations. Parallel environment capture based on electromagnetic ultra-wideband signals in the gigahertz range (UWB, as in “Ultra Wideband”) can correct these errors in quasi-real-time, thus providing the basis for centimeter-accurate, reliable spatial orientation. Furthermore, UWB is practically immune to interference from other radio waves and is not diffracted. Several scientific papers have been able to demonstrate this well. Hopes for this type of environmental sensing are therefore high. In addition, ultra-wideband technology is extremely cost-effective compared to lidar and requires relatively little power.

The Hyundai Group intends to use this type of sensor fusion in passenger cars of its brands Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis in the future to improve the quality of their assistance systems. The brand name chosen is “Vision Pulse.” The group promises that the assistance will thus be able to locate objects within a radius of 100 m with a fault tolerance of only 10 cm and speaks of a detection accuracy of over 99 percent “even in adverse weather conditions or darkness.” Its “high communication speed between 1 and 5 milliseconds” is intended to enable “effective real-time safety management.” Algorithms extract the positions and directions of movement of multiple objects relevant to the vehicle from the data, even if they are moving at high speed, as Hyundai writes. The system is shown in this video from Kia:

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Include transmitters

In addition, the receiver should use the UWB signals emitted by other devices working with this technology for positioning, in addition to its wave propagation. This is intended to make detection even more differentiated and increasingly dense the more of these small transmitters are on the roads. Hyundai, like many other manufacturers, is already integrating them into its cars for communication with a keyless entry system. Furthermore, some smartphones, smartwatches, and trackers also use UWB for specific functions.

Hyundai even suggests distributing as many small transmitters as possible to pedestrians on this basis, starting with kindergarten and schoolchildren. The most vulnerable road users would then potentially be better protected than most others. The system is currently still in a testing phase under realistic everyday conditions and real industrial environments. Kia and Hyundai Motor are currently testing at their development center in Hwaseong and the seaport in Busan (both in Korea) how Vision Pulse can help prevent collisions between work vehicles and pedestrians.

(fpi)