Decoders, drivers, program libraries: Software integration solutions for the acquisition and evaluation of synchronous ADMA measurement data
The Offenburg-based engineering company GeneSys Elektronik specializes in the development and manufacture of high-precision sensor systems. These are mainly used in the automotive sector for vehicle dynamics and advanced driver assistance measurements.
With the Automotive Dynamic Motion Analyzer, ADMA for short, all motion states such as acceleration, velocity, position, angular rates, orientation- and sideslip angle of the vehicle can be acquired with high precision under motion. Numerous cooperations make software and hardware solutions – depending on the application – available to GeneSys customers.
For the acquisition and evaluation of synchronous ADMA measurement data, customers can rely on numerous software solutions such as decoders, drivers, or program libraries.
Overview of Integration Solutions
GeneSys Data Reader API
- Programming interface for the connection of the ADMA Ethernet data output in own software solutions
The GeneSys Data Reader API is a programming interface for linking the ADMA Ethernet data output in proprietary software solutions. Research and development use the ADMA Data Reader Library to realize online data acquisition or to post-process and analyze ADMA measurement data.
All Ethernet data formats (ADMAnet, RAW Data, DELTA Data, BrakingData, Robot Data) of an ADMA can be interpreted online with .Net C#DLL. (Binary) measurement data already recorded with the GeneSys Ethernet logger, for example, can thus also be decoded in the post-processing. This integration is particularly useful in analysis engineering tools that are often used for data analysis. For example, MATLAB or similar software solutions provide a .NET interface.
ROS 1 and ROS 2 driver
- Sensor processing, evaluation, planning and control
ROS is an open-source project which is released under the BSD license and provides a modular framework for industrial robotics. The ADMA uses a combination of GNSS-Receiver and different rate and acceleration sensors. Due to this, different ROS topics are getting filled with sensor, GNSS and combined measurement data. The latest ADMA ROS driver can be downloaded directly from GitHub:
In the automotive industry, the functions are used for sensor processing, evaluation, planning and control. Thus, ROS is also increasingly used in the field of autonomous driving. With the help of the ADMA ROS driver, the ADMA measurement data can be acquired via Ethernet and thus used for regulation and control.
The ADMA ROS2 Driver integrates the GNSS aided inertial system ADMA® into the ROS1 and ROS2 hirarchy. The GNSS, INS and combined data can be output in the ADMAnet ROS topic and is also integrated in ROS standard topics. Additionally, the driver records a binary raw data stream, that is fully integrated in the GeneSys toolchain.
Software Plugins
Numerous data acquisition systems enable a fully synchronized acquisition, storage and visualization of measurement data from different interfaces:
Supported interfaces include:
- Analoge, digital, counter and encoder data
- Camera data
- Odometry and vehicle bus systems
Thanks to the implemented ADMA plug-ins, the inertial measurement unit ADMA from GeneSys can be used as a reference system for vehicle dynamics and advanced driver assistance systems.
The ADMA plug-in enables the acquisition of measurement data such as ADMAnet data. With the help of the plug-in within the data acquisition systems – such as those from Dewesoft or Dewetron – the ADMA can also be used as clock master as well as realize software synchronization of other hardware components.
ADMA Decoder Vector CANape, CANoe and CANalayzer
- ADMAnet Protocol Decoder for Vector Softwares
CANape is a powerful measurement and calibration tool that has been specially developed for the development and validation of embedded systems and ADAS/AD solutions in the automotive industry. CANape is used to calibrate ECU parameters and to record, visualize and analyse measurement data. CANape captures measurement data from many common high-resolution radar, video and LIDAR sensors, such as IBEO HAD, Quanergy, Mobileye and GigE Vision.
CANoe/CANalyzer is a comprehensive development and test environment specifically designed for the development, analysis and simulation of CAN, Ethernet, FlexRay, LIN-based networks and many other protocols in vehicles. This powerful software enables engineers to monitor, analyze and test various aspects of network communication, including real-time measurements, signal generation, fault injection and diagnostics.
The GNSS-supported inertial system ADMA serves as a reference system. All ADMA measurement data is recorded and, if necessary, offset against each other. The area of application ranges from individual vehicles to several networked vehicles.
With Vector’s Support Center, the software can be effectively configured to analyze ADMA measurement data.
MXoptiCal – MdynamiX
- Measure ADMA antenna offsets quickly and accurately
MXoptiCal is an optical measurement tool that is used in development and research-based vehicle testing from prototypes to production vehicles. The photogrammetry system provides highly accurate, reproducible measurement results of distances and thus forms a reliable basis for ADMA offset measurements between IMU and GNSS antenna. The MXoptiCal contains adapters that fit the ADMA HW setup to calculate the offsets reliably and transfer them to the ADMA Confiq via an interface.
ADMA2eCal
- Integration in Client-Server-Middleware eCal
eCal (enhanced Communication Abstraction Layer) integrates the ADMA into its hierarchy, a high performance publish-subscribe, client-server cross-platform middleware.
It offers different transport protocols, as shared memory, UDP and TCP to adapt to diverse network requirements to communicate between multiple participants with the goal to simplify development of complex distributed systems. eCal runs on different operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS and even real-time operating systems used in embedded systems. The ADMA2eCal integration is available as open-source repository.
Vehicle Spy 3 – Intrepid
- Seamless integration of ADMA data streams into the Vehicle Spy 3 data logger software
Intrepid Control Systems offers seamless integration of ADMA data streams into their data logger landscape.
Vehicle Spy 3 is a powerful tool for the development, testing, diagnosis and validation of vehicle systems.
For the road test, the data loggers are configured for autonomous use in the vehicle. If required, the recorded data can be stored directly on a central server.
This enables engineers and technicians to record and store various communication networks such as CAN (Controller Area Network), LIN (Local Interconnect Network), FlexRay and Ethernet, from the vehicle or external sensors. The ADMA’s CAN and Ethernet data streams are fully decoded and recorded. Remote data logging enables different departments from different locations to simultaneously access, view, export and download the data or process it directly on the server using Python scripts.
ADTF – Digitalwerk
- Processing and recording of ADMA measurement data in ADTF
ADTF (Automotive Data and Time Triggered Framework) is a software that streamlines and simplifies the development and testing of Advanced Driverassistance Systems (ADAS) functionalities. It is designed to process and record data from different data sources by snapping them together with standardized interfaces, synchronizing them and recording all the combined data sets.
MDF4 / MF4 – Converter
- Conversion of ADMA to MF4 data
MDF4, also known as MF4, stands for Measurement Data Format version 4. It’s a specific file format used primarily in the automotive industry for storing and analyzing complex measurement data. Focus is on CAN data transmission but can also handle CAN FD and LIN bus data. It is an efficient and standardized data format, that makes it possible to store large amounts of data compared to text formats.
The MDF4-Converter allows the conversion from ASCII ADMA data (.gsda) to MDF4 data (.mf4) and conversion from MDF4 data to Matlab data (.mat).
