Unity, a platform for creating and operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content, is partnering up with South Korea’s self-driving technology company Mando Co. to develop front camera simulation technology for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
Unity has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mando to develop an ADAS front camera simulator. This MOU will combine Mando’s expertise in technology with Unity for a joint effort to develop an ADAS front camera simulator. This is South Korea’s first collaboration case between an automotive parts company and a game engine developer.
Mando is an automotive parts manufacturer that supplies brake, steering, and suspension systems and ADAS to global carmakers such as Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Corp., GM, and BMW. Mando has become a global company through electronicization of chassis technologies and has grown into a mobility integrated solution provider through advanced ADAS-based autonomous driving technologies. Mando acquired the autonomous vehicle testing permit in the state of California in the United States in 2018, becoming the first Korean automobile company with this license. In 2019, Mando also successfully tested Level 4 autonomous driving, making leaps and bounds in independently developing a fully autonomous driving platform.
The ADAS front camera serves as the eyes of the car, detecting objects ahead and controlling the car’s moving speed and direction. Mando’s goal with this collaborative project is to utilize Unity to create a virtual reality simulator for training ADAS front cameras. This simulator would 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. The 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 Kim In-sook, 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,” said Danny Lange, senior vice president of AI and machine learning, Unity. “Unity supports fast and easy creation of high-quality synthetic datasets 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,” said Kang Hyung-jin, 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.”
Meanwhile Unity has collaborated with global IT corporations Microsoft and Baidu to support the testing of artificial intelligence 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 supports the digital transformation in various companies, working on projects to innovate user experience and implement 3D designs with Unity global carmakers such as Hyundai Motor, Kia Corp., Volvo, Audi, and Volkswagen.
