In recent years, with the continuous development of autonomous driving technology, the popularity of millimeter-wave radar has also increased.
As the only all-weather sensor, not interfered with by environmental factors such as rain and fog, millimeter-wave radar is well known for loading "getting on the car", but this is only its A-side; standing on the B-side, in the "new track" such as smart transportation, smart city, smart home, millimeter-wave radar is also staging technological upgrades and competition.
National policy and the "two-wheel drive" of the 100 billion market
From the perspective of national policies, smart transportation has risen to an important strategy of national transportation. In recent years, the state has successively issued a series of construction and planning outlines such as the Outline for the Construction of a Transportation Powerhouse, the Outline of the Digital Transportation Development Plan, and the Outline of the National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning.
In August 2020, the Ministry of Transport issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of New Infrastructure in the Field of Transportation", which proposed that by 2035, the construction of new infrastructure in the field of transportation will achieve remarkable results. Advanced information technology deeply empowers transportation infrastructure, and the ability of accurate perception, accurate analysis, fine management and meticulous service has been comprehensively improved, which has become a strong support for accelerating the construction of a transportation power.
In 2021, the Ministry of Transport released the 14th Five-Year Development Plan for Digital Transport. Among them, in the "six key projects", it is clearly pointed out that it is necessary to improve the highway perception network, promote the full-cycle digitization of all elements of highway infrastructure, develop vehicle-road coordination and automatic driving, and promote the guidance of bad weather driving in key road sections to alleviate traffic congestion and improve operational efficiency.
Macro policy is the "weather vane", and the market size of millimeter-wave radar cannot be ignored. According to Marketsand Markets, the total market for millimeter-wave radar sensors will reach $20.6 billion by 2023.
(Source: Pixabay)
In recent years, with the advancement of chip technology, its product integration is getting higher and higher, and the cost is gradually declining, which provides a precursor for the mass production and application of millimeter-wave radar.
From the perspective of manufacturer distribution, millimeter wave radar in the automotive industry is dominated by foreign brand manufacturers such as Bosch, Continental, Hella, Aptiv, and Veoneer.
In 2015, with the rapid development of vehicle-mounted millimeter wave radar and 5G millimeter wave communication technology in China, millimeter wave radar technology began to develop rapidly. From the blind spot monitoring of BSD angle radar to the radar and the full penetration of the whole vehicle angle radar, the domestic millimeter wave radar brand products began to slowly replace some foreign manufacturers.
The application scope of millimeter wave radar has also gradually expanded from the traditional vehicle-mounted radar to more fields such as security, smart transportation, smart city, and smart home.
Because of this, emerging millimeter-wave radar technologies are constantly emerging. DeepTech noted that in the 2021 China (Xiaoguwei) "Internet + Transportation" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Smart Highway Theme Competition Millimeter Wave Radar Special Competition (hereinafter referred to as the "Xiaoguwei Competition"), Hayaye Technology and Shudao Group Sichuan Digital Transportation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sichuan Digital") jointly formed a team to participate in the competition and won the championship.
So, what is the "exclusive secret" of its millimeter-wave radar technology? What other application scenarios does millimeter-wave radar have besides automotive applications? How will millimeter-wave radar evolve in the future? This article will use Hayabusa Technology as a case to analyze and interpret all aspects.
All-round customized solutions to deeply empower "smart cars" and "smart roads"
In the final of the Kotani Wai Competition, Hayabusa Technology and Sichuan Digital officially released the SDR2000 series of high-performance millimeter wave radar products. For the application of millimeter-wave radar in smart transportation, it is necessary to "see accurately" and "see far".
According to public information, the product has a directional detection distance of up to 1500 meters, and achieves lane-level detection accuracy in the full range, which is better than the spatial resolution of 0.5 degrees, and the detection ability of thrown and intruders up to 400 meters away.
Based on the all-round high-performance guarantee of the SDR series of millimeter wave radar, Sichuan Digital has realized a new exploration of intelligent high-speed construction such as vehicle-road coordination and quasi-all-weather traffic in the pilot tasks of building a transportation power such as Chengdu Second Ring Expressway and Chengyi Expressway.
According to the Xiaoguwei competition, "SDR2000 radar shows ultra-high product performance in the radar full performance test, traffic incident detection, full trajectory tracking and other highway actual road all-round tests, of which radar detection distance, lateral measurement accuracy, spatial resolution, projectile and intrusion detection and other radar core performance indicators are the highest level in the industry." ”
Figure丨 Falcon's Eye Technology and Sichuan Digital jointly teamed up to participate in the 2021 China (Xiaoguwei) "Internet + Transportation" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Smart Highway Theme Competition Millimeter Wave Radar Special Competition, and won the championship (Source: Hayceva Technology)
So, what is the story behind The excellent technical level of Hayabusa Technology? In addition to this product, how is its production capacity and technological breakthrough formed?
It is reported that Hayabusa Technology was founded in 2015, is a high-tech company focusing on the research and development and production of millimeter-wave radar. As of November 2021, Hayeye Technology has completed several rounds of financing and received investment from well-known enterprises or capitals at home and abroad, including international automotive semiconductor giant NXP Semiconductors, domestic hard technology venture capital and incubation funds such as Kechuangxing, Topkin Capital, Nanjing Fengyun and so on.
After years of technical precipitation, Hayabusa Technology has the ability to develop the whole process of millimeter-wave radar from design, simulation and verification to production, operation and maintenance. In particular, in the design of radar systems, such as MIMO radar design, new radar antenna technology, and radar signal processing algorithm research and development, a series of leading achievements have been made, such as ultra-high detection accuracy up to 0.1 degrees, excellent performance such as resolution up to 0.5 degrees, etc.
The excellent performance stems from Hayabusa's deep understanding of millimeter-wave radar, and innovatively proposed the concept of "5H traffic radar", namely Holographic Perception, Hyper Precision, Hyper Resolution, Hyper Range, and Hyper Intelligence.
According to reports, in the field of smart transportation, Hayabusa Technology's products have formed a unique product proposition, many of which are "from 0 to 1" realizations. "Different from the previous pure video perception or video-based laser fusion perception technology solution, at present, on many highways in China, the laser fusion perception scheme based on millimeter wave radar can even achieve effective, high-precision all-weather perception and low-latency vehicle-road collaboration new exploration by relying on millimeter-wave radar alone." Zhang Hui, associate professor of the State Key Laboratory of Millimeters at Southeast University and CTO of Hayabusa Technology, said.
Figure丨 Hayabusa Technology A variety of millimeter wave traffic radars are installed in smart high-speed, holographic intersections and other scenarios (Source: Hayabusa Technology)
This seems to be different from people's previous understanding of millimeter-wave radar, millimeter-wave radar due to the detection distance is not long enough, long-distance detection accuracy is not high enough, low resolution and other factors, the application of intelligent transportation is not optimistic, once considered to be the "foil" of video.
Zhang Hui said that today, millimeter-wave radar can not only effectively cooperate with and support the work of the camera to achieve better lightning fusion, but also millimeter-wave radar can also work independently.
The changes in the application track of millimeter-wave radar, from assisted driving to vehicle-road collaboration, from video surveillance and video analysis of roads, to all-weather perception based on millimeter-wave radar, are actually different technical routes for autonomous driving and intelligent transportation.
The reason why Hayabusa Technology's millimeter-wave radar technology can "stand out", from pure vehicle-mounted millimeter-wave thunder to "multi-track" rapid switching, is essentially based on long-term technology accumulation and continuous technological innovation capabilities and forward-looking industrial layout.
First, the original innovation at the source of technology. The State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Wave of Southeast University, as a powerful technical support for Hayeye Technology, continues to introduce new technology resources for it. The State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Wave of Southeast University was established in 1990, and has accumulated long-term technical experience in millimeter wave imaging, radar imaging, SAR imaging, etc. Hayabusa Technology has the advantage of "near water building". And, there is also an early layout on 4D radar imaging.
"We put the industry's understanding of the product or the development idea, really made corrections, and returned it to the path of science." On this basis, we have a complete and powerful theoretical and engineering research capability of millimeter-wave radar, ensuring that our technology and products continue to lead the industry. Zhang Hui said.
Second, it has a strong industrial ecosystem. Also thanks to the technological transformation of the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Wave of Southeast University, Hayabusa Technology has also closely integrated with dozens of upstream and downstream related companies to form a comprehensive information and communication technology (ICT) industry platform, including radar, 5G communication, millimeter wave communication, millimeter wave chips, new materials, computing platforms, instrumentation, artificial intelligence and other fields, building a close technical and strategic collaboration.
In the dark night conditions, Hayabusa Technology's millimeter-wave radar can accurately distinguish vehicles with different lanes at long distances, and fuse with visual sensors to form twin images (Source: Hayabusa Technology)
In terms of strategic partners, Hayeye Technology has in-depth cooperation with traditional transportation enterprises, intelligent network enterprises, national and provincial transportation planning and design institutes and other enterprises, including Sichuan Shudao Group, Guangdong Canton Communications Group, Jiangsu Transportation Holdings, China Automobile Chuangzhi, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent, etc.
Among them, in 2021, the Chengyi Expressway Smart Expressway Project jointly built by Shudao Group and Alibaba Cloud, in which Hayeye Technology participated, has been launched in batches, becoming the first all-element, full-coverage smart expressway in Sichuan Province, realizing a new exploration of quasi-all-weather traffic and vehicle-road coordination.
Zhang Hui said that unlike products that rely on the inherent ability of chips to design a certain function, the advantages of Hayabusa Technology are reflected in the "full stack". That is to say, it has conducted a comprehensive study of radar materials, MMIC chips, radar systems, and the overall supporting of radar systems. Therefore, it has the "customization ability" to quickly respond to different needs and different scenarios, and quickly customize different solutions according to the special requirements of customers.
In addition, Hayabusa Technology has also formed a variety of solutions for intelligent transportation. Including lightning fusion, lightning integration, edge computing, situational awareness and active control platform, digital twin, C-terminal reach, radar communication integration platform, etc.
In terms of in-vehicle radar, Hayabusa Technology currently works closely with the industry's high-quality Tier 1 (Tier 1 supplier of automakers) customers to provide solutions for the new generation of in-vehicle radar needs of domestic and international first-line OEMs. Zhang Hui said, "Our in-vehicle radar has been awarded the fixed-point project of best-selling models from a number of car manufacturers (including new energy vehicle manufacturers), and has now entered the batch delivery stage. ”
In terms of smart transportation, in addition to millimeter-wave radar products in highways and smart cities, Hayabusa's related new radar technology has also been batch used in scenarios such as slope bridges and tunnels.
"Jointly developed by Hayabusa Technology and the traffic owner unit, Falcon Eye Technology has the industry's leading deformation monitoring millimeter wave radar for slope bridges and tunnels, which can provide sub-millimeter-level continuous real-time monitoring data and early warning information for important structures such as side (slope) bridges (beams) tunnels (roads)." Zhang Hui said.
Based on this, Hayabusa has introduced a surface monitoring radar that can be used for bridge safety and anti-smuggling, and a perimeter radar for railways, ports and other important places.
For the landing of technology, Hayabusa Technology also has a clear promotion plan. According to reports, Hayabusa Technology's traffic radar has been deployed in batches on many highways and intersections in intelligent networked cities across the country. Zhang Hui pointed out that in 2021, thousands of millimeter-wave radars of Hayabusa Technology have been deployed on highways and intelligent network pilot demonstration areas, and have entered use, and there will be thousands of kilometers of large-scale deployment this year.
On the whole, the advantage of Hayabusa Technology is not a single point breakthrough of a certain technology or a new concept product, but with years of comprehensive technical accumulation, continuous technological innovation and introduction, the formation of a systematic series of product solutions. Moreover, it can also respond quickly according to market demand, which is a change from the comprehensive ability of "one trick fresh, eat all over the sky" to a full range of customized solutions.
More than 20 years of industry accumulation, "university + Internet" dual gene
In addition to the advanced technology, Hayabusa Technology also has industry influence. It is understood that it has deeply participated in the formulation of relevant national and industry standards, and jointly formulated relevant industry standards with the Ministry of Transport, transportation enterprises, industry associations, and group alliances to better promote the development of the industry.
In 2021, Hayabusa Technology, as the main drafter, deeply participated in the group standard of intelligent traffic millimeter wave radar traffic status detector led by CCCC Guotong and the Highway Science Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, which has been released and implemented after several rounds of review.
The leadership of technology and the influence of the industry are inseparable from the "combat effectiveness" of its team. From the perspective of team genes, Hayabusa Technology has the dual gene of "university + Internet". It not only has the support of the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Wave of Southeast University, top scientific research teachers, laboratory test equipment and measurement environment, but also closely integrates with the most cutting-edge Internet technology.
Of course, the GENES of a company are closely related to the founders. Shi Xuesong, founder, chairman and CEO of Hayabusa Technology, is an "entrepreneurial veteran" with more than 20 years of experience in automotive electronics and intelligent transportation operations. Under his leadership, Hayabusa Technology has the earliest team of technical experts engaged in the research and development of 77GHz millimeter wave radar in China, including millimeter wave technology and radar signal processing, and has accumulated nearly 100 patent achievements so far.
Figure丨 Associate Professor of state key laboratory of millimeters at Southeast University, Zhang Hui, CTO of Hayabusa Technology (Source: Hayabusa Technology)
Hayabusa Technology believes that the team's strong "combat effectiveness" ensures that Hayabusa Technology's products must be "handy, handed over, and used brilliantly". At present, the number of Hayabusa technology team is nearly 100 people, of which more than 70% are technical research and development personnel. Moreover, due to the system-level solutions provided by Hayashi Technology, compound talents have become the key recruitment targets of the next stage of the team, and Hayabusa Technology will expand the team team in a planned manner according to the development of the enterprise.
Hayabusa Plans to Launch a Number of "Benchmark" Products in the Automotive and Transportation Sectors this year. Zhang Hui said that in order to further respond to the national strategic layout and the demands of transportation enterprises, Hayabusa Technology will soon release an ultra-high-performance traffic radar product based on domestic radar MMIC chips. "In addition to the new use of local radar chips, the product will also introduce new millimeter wave material technology to significantly reduce losses and create higher performance performance in all aspects of the product." At the same time, we are confident that this year will reach a profit of tens of millions of dollars. ”
epilogue
On the one hand, in the field of automatic driving, the rise of 4D imaging and other technologies has avoided the disadvantages of low resolution of millimeter-wave radar; on the other hand, in the fields of smart transportation and smart home, millimeter-wave radar has the advantages of all-weather, long detection distance and high privacy. In the C-end market, millimeter-wave radar may be "within reach".
For the millimeter wave radar industry, it is more like a process of "spitting out the old and the new", and only rapid and continuous update iteration can maintain the long-term leading position of technology and product performance. With strong technical background and customization ability, and rapid response to market demand, it is the "best secret" to maintain technological advancement.
In the next 5-10 years, millimeter wave radar technology and applications may usher in a period of rapid development. It is foreseeable that the millimeter wave radar market will continue to evolve and change rapidly in the future. The "horn" of millimeter-wave radar technology has actually just sounded.
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