Hampshire simulation software specialist collaboration with Sony Semiconductor Solutions

rFpro has announced a collaboration with Sony to develop high-fidelity sensor models with rFpro software, focusing on improving the accuracy of simulation solutions.

Physically modelled camera exposure results in accurate motion blur Credit: rFpro

The aim is to reduce the need to collect physical data while training sensors and therefore enable perception systems for autonomous vehicles to be tested in a virtual environment, speeding up development.

rFpro is an engineering-grade simulation environment for the automotive and motorsport industries. It’s used for the development and testing of autonomous vehicles, ADAS, vehicle dynamics and human factor studies – essentially anything that involves driving a vehicle.

“The collaboration between rFpro and Sony Semiconductor Solutions will provide an automotive-grade End2End simulation pipeline to the ADAS perception system developers,” said Kenji Onishi, Deputy Senior General Manager, Automotive Business Division, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation.

Kenji Onishi, Deputy Senior General Manager, Automotive Business Division, Sony

“Sony has prepared a sensor model based on the internal architecture of the image sensors used in camera systems to achieve automotive-grade fidelity.”

Simulation enables vehicle systems to be subjected to a limitless array of scenarios. The weather, time of day, amount of traffic and pedestrians can all be controlled and varied independently and automatically.

In rFpro everything in the scene has been physically modelled with accurate material characteristics and the road surface recreated to within a height accuracy of 1mm.

“Sony Semiconductor Solutions has been a crucial collaborator in the development of our recently launched ray tracing technology and rFpro’s Multi-Exposure Camera technology, which accurately replicates what cameras ‘see’ for the first time,” said Matt Daley, rFpro Operations Director.

Physically modelled camera exposure results in accurate motion blur Credit: rFpro

“Vehicles can drive thousands of high-value, high-activity virtual miles every day in simulation.

“Edge cases can be identified and new iterations generated quickly to thoroughly exercise sensor systems. It removes the need to wait for exposure in the real world, where the majority of miles driven are relatively uneventful.”

Sony is the first partner to collaborate with rFpro on its recently launched ray tracing technology, which is the company’s software-in-the-loop (SIL) solution aimed at generating synthetic training data. In 3D computer graphics, ray tracing is a technique for modeling light and it’s trajectory when generating digital images.