TIER IV and Baraja Strengthen Collaboration

TOKYO – TIER IV, an open-source autonomous driving leader, is expanding upon its work with Baraja, creator of the breakthrough Spectrum-Scan™ LiDAR technology, by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly validate, develop and optimize their respective autonomous driving solutions.

Following a successful research and development project between the companies, originally announced in January 2022, this technical collaboration intends to integrate Baraja’s next-generation, high-performing LiDAR with TIER IV’s HDR cameras and sensor fusion software, which utilizes point cloud perception. This advanced combination will offer customers an industry-leading autonomous vehicle solution with planned availability in 2025.

“We are pleased to further strengthen our partnership with TIER IV to create this next-generation offering that will provide reliable long-range detection and object classification through enhanced perception ability,” said Joseph Notaro, Chief Commercial Officer at Baraja. “This strategic collaboration between Baraja and TIER IV is a critical step toward enabling future levels of autonomy for the industry.”

Baraja’s revolutionary LiDAR, the Spectrum HD25, is a key ingredient to the MOU. The partnership will boost the capabilities of both company’s technologies, delivering unique benefits to the automotive industry, including:

  • Greatly enhanced localization and scene comprehension
  • Optimized use of Baraja’s LiDAR in different environments (e.g., rain, fog, etc.)
  • The use of Doppler to solve critical edge cases
  • Dependable long-range detection and more

Ultimately, the resulting solution will provide automotive perception algorithms with a clear and accurate representation of the physical world to help autonomous vehicles make swift, accurate decisions based on the immediate situation.

Spectrum HD25 was created using Baraja’s robust and proprietary Spectrum-Scan™ solid-state scanning platform and is a significant leap forward in LiDAR technology. Designed to reimagine how cars see the world around them completely, this LiDAR system is the first to combine per-point Doppler capability at the hardware level with a tunable wavelength laser and Random Modulation Continuous Wave (RMCW) ranging method. Its unique makeup enables the optimal resolution and range required for the safe deployment of autonomous functions and allows it to deliver unmatched accuracy and performance.

TIER IV is developing sensor fusion and perception algorithms for the next generation of autonomous vehicles built on the open-source platform Autoware. Research and development into new sensing methods and strategies is integral to expanding operational design domains through reference designs and will contribute to growing the Autoware ecosystem. Accelerated development of high-performance perception systems will be made available to all Autoware users by incorporating cutting-edge technology such as Baraja’s Spectrum Scan LiDAR into TIER IV’s Pilot.Auto and Edge Perception Development Kit.

“We have made a number of tangible and impactful achievements through the collaborations with Baraja. TIER IV aspires to accelerate its business on the Autonomous Driving Development Kit (ADK) and passionately contribute to the Autoware community by providing competitive reference designs and solutions.” said Shinpei Kato, Founder and CTO of TIER IV, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Autoware Foundation.

Source

Self Drive News
Self Drive News

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