Real-time Camera Image Processing for Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles process immense amounts of data and they have to do it in real-time. There are dimensional, energy and thermal limitations on the amount of computation which reasonably can be placed in a typical sedan or minivan. Out of this contradiction various design compromises emerge. This article reveals some specific challenges and idiosyncrasies; looks into some important design choices and how they define the overall system architecture; argues the importance of a camera interface; talks about the benefits and perils of using video compression; attempts to define some useful video-related software abstractions; points out a qualitative-changing role of hardware timestamps; describes advantages HDR-cameras bring and shows associated computational burden.

關鍵字

Autonomous vehicle ； Real-time ； camera ； HDR camera ； GigE ； H.26x ； NPP

並列摘要

自動駕駛車處理大量數據且必須實時處理。在典型的轎車或廂式休旅車中，計算量存在尺寸、能量和熱量方面的限制。出於這一矛盾，各種設計折衷方案因應而生。本文介紹其中的一些方案：揭示具體的挑戰和特性；探討一些重要的設計選擇以及它們如何定義整體系統架構；討論攝影機介面的重要性；談論使用視訊壓縮的好處和風險；試圖定義一些有用的與視訊相關的影像摘要；指出硬體時戳的質變角色；描述HDR攝影機帶來的優勢，並展示了相關的計算負擔。