Open LiDAR Solution Expands Renesas autonomy™ Platform, Demonstrator to be Showcased During CES 2018 at Dibotics’ Booth (Central Plaza North Hall, CP-5, France Auto Pavilion)

TOKYO & PARIS — (BUSINESS WIRE) — December 13, 2017 — Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, and Dibotics, a pioneer and leader in real-time 3D LiDAR processing, today announced their collaboration to develop an automotive-grade embedded solution for LiDAR processing used in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving applications. The jointly-developed solution will enable system manufacturers to develop real-time 3D mapping systems with high level functional safety (FuSa) and low-power consumption.

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LiDAR processing today requires an efficient processing platform and advanced embedded software. By combining Renesas’ high-performance image processing, low-power automotive R-Car system-on-chip (SoC) with Dibotics’ 3D simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology, the companies deliver a SLAM on Chip™ (Note 1). The SLAM on Chip implements 3D SLAM processing on a SoC, a function that used to require a high-performance PC. It also realizes 3D mapping with LiDAR data only, eliminating the need to use inertial measurement units (IMUs) and global positioning system (GPS) data. The collaboration enables a real-time 3D mapping system with low power consumption and high-level functional safety in automotive systems.

As the automotive market prepares for the autonomous-driving era, optimizing the sensor technology required for autonomous vehicles, including real-time, high-definition perception of the environment, precise localization of the vehicle, and real-time sensor fusion, remains a significant challenge. LiDAR has become a key sensor, providing higher-precision obstacle sensing around the vehicle and real-time electric control unit (ECU) management for vehicle control compared with alternative methods such as cameras and radars. The rapid increase in the amount of data delivered by new LiDAR sensor technologies is driving a growing need for high-performance real-time processing of all this data.

“The seamless combination of Renesas and Dibotics technologies realizes a real-time and power-efficient solution for advanced LiDAR data processing on top of a high FuSa-level capability,” said Jean-Francois Chouteau, Vice President, Global ADAS Centre, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “For autonomous driving, Renesas is optimizing its end-to-end Renesas autonomy Platform by working with innovative market players, and we are excited to announce our collaboration with Dibotics, who is delivering game-changing technology for the LiDAR market.”

“LiDAR sensors will play a crucial role for all ADAS and automated driving functions,” said Raul Bravo, CEO and co-founder of Dibotics. “This cooperation ideally combines the best of Renesas design expertise and the unique technology of Dibotics to deliver cutting-edge performance and enable OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and LiDAR manufacturers to reduce development cost and accelerate time-to-market. We are delighted to join forces with a market leader like Renesas.”

Unlike existing approaches, Dibotics’ Augmented LiDAR™ software realizes 3D SLAM technology that only requires data from the LiDAR sensor to achieve 3D mapping. It does not require additional input from IMUs, GPS, or wheel encoders (Note 2), which eliminates extra integration efforts, lowers bill-of-material (BOM) costs and simplifies development. In addition, the software realizes point-wise classification (Note 3), detection and tracking of shape, speed, and trajectory of moving objects, and Multi-LiDAR fusion (Note 4).

The high-performance capabilities of the R-Car SoC enables it to run Dibotics' Augmented LiDAR software. The R-Car has low power consumption and also meets the ISO 26262 (ASIL) FuSa standard for high functional safety. Renesas R-Car is part of the ground-breaking Renesas autonomy™ Platform for ADAS and automated driving that delivers total end-to-end solutions scaling from cloud to sensing and vehicle control.

Dibotics will demonstrate the Augmented LiDAR solution during CES 2018 (Central Plaza North Hall, CP-5, France Auto Pavilion), to be held January 9-12, 2018 in Las Vegas, NV.

(Note 1) SLAM on Chip (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping on Chip): SLAM is a computational algorithm capable of generating and updating a map of an unknown environment while simultaneously keeping track of the vehicle’s location. SLAM on Chip realizes SLAM technology on a SoC.

(Note 2) The wheel encoder measures the rotation of a car wheel. This measurement gives the speed of the car.

(Note 3) Automatic classification of each point delivered by the LiDAR without using machine learning, previous knowledge or map data.

(Note 4) Real-time combination of multiple LiDAR data without requiring calibration or synchronization processing.

About Dibotics

Dibotics is a Paris-based company offering innovation in real-time LiDAR processing. Founded in 2015 by Raul Bravo and Olivier Garcia, two serial entrepreneurs with extensive experience of 15 years in LiDAR processing for mobile robotics applications, Dibotics has an original approach that differs from the traditional model. Its sensor-agnostic 3D SLAM technology (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and Augmented LiDAR™ created the first solution allowing advanced features like point-wise classification, objects detection & tracking and calibration-less Sensor Fusion to be performed only based on the sensor data itself. All of this performs without requiring any learning (deterministic) and can be embedded in a small and low-power integrated circuit ( SLAM on Chip™).