New Hainan Client, Nanhai Net, Nanguo Metropolis Daily April 25 news (reporter Ren Tong) "Don't underestimate this self-driving retail car, you wave at it, it will sense your physical behavior, and then stop in front of you." Liu Jie, project manager of Unicom Zhiwang Technology Co., Ltd., said that the reason why it can do this is because this self-driving retail car is equipped with 4 lidar, 7 cameras, and 10 sets of ultrasonic sensors, which can realize the accurate environment perception of 360 degrees around the vehicle without dead angles.
Boao Dongyu Island Vehicle Networking Project Demonstration Site. Photo by reporter Yao Hao
At the just-concluded Boao Forum for Asia 2022 Annual Conference, Hainan Traffic Control, as the project investment and construction unit, and Hainan Unicom and China Unicom Wisdom Network Company as the system integrator, carried out the pilot construction of the Internet of Vehicles on Boao Dongyu Island. The 12 self-driving cars attracted the attention of many guests, and also added a "wisdom" and "green" to the annual meeting.
Gan Ke, general manager and executive director of Hainan Intelligent Transportation Industry Development Co., Ltd., introduced that this project includes automatic driving, green wave guidance, safety obstacle avoidance, voice interaction and many other content from previous science fiction blockbusters. In the next step, the autonomous vehicle can rely on the cloud control platform to receive traffic light signal machine data, analyze and process the light color and timing information, adjust the speed in real time, and pass the traffic light.
So, what are the technical supports behind the project? How do the technical highlights advance their realization? Recently, the reporter interviewed the relevant responsible persons of the project's contractors, China Unicom Zhiwang Technology Co., Ltd. and Hainan Unicom.
It is reported that in the Boao Dongyu Island Vehicle Networking Project, China Unicom used 5G technology to build a high-performance 5G private network communication network in the Boao demonstration area, and built a vehicle-road network cloud integration intelligent transportation system covering "vehicle-road collaborative cloud control platform, digital twin command center, integrated transportation integration, and 5G remote takeover".
"Based on this system, the demonstration area organically integrates the 5G application experience with unmanned vehicles, which requires the construction and deployment of a large number of perception and communication equipment." Liu Jie introduced that to this end, China Unicom has built 13 roadside perception points on Boao Dongyu Island, deployed edge computing, radar, cameras, supporting 5G base stations and secure transmission private networks, and formed a complete automation system including perception, decision-making and control of the full closed loop, which can realize the real-time interaction and seamless connection of people, vehicles, roads, clouds and networks.
If driverless vehicles have far more perceptual than human drivers, can you believe it? In this regard, Liu Jie expressed his affirmation. He said: "During the construction of the project, China Unicom completed the construction of a total of eight vehicle-road coordination scenes, namely intersection collision warning, blind area early warning, speed limit warning, in-vehicle signage, collision warning of vulnerable traffic participants, red light warning, green wave speed guidance, and road danger situation tips. ”
Behind each vehicle-to-road coordination scene is the embodiment of technology, taking the intersection collision warning as an example, the scene collects data through millimeter-wave radar and high-definition cameras and transmits it to the edge computing unit for processing, and sends the processed structured data to the roadside unit, RSU sends the early warning information to the vehicle vehicle unit through 5G-v2x communication, realizes the intersection collision warning, and displays the early warning information through the vehicle display screen.
The self-driving minibus drives in the Boao Undersea Passage. Photo by reporter Li Hao
One of the highlights of the Boao Dongyu Island Vehicle Networking Project is the demonstration application of autonomous driving minibuses in the 1-kilometer-long undersea tunnel for the first time in the country. So, why is it difficult for a self-driving minibus to cross the tunnel?
In this regard, Liu Jie introduced that the automatic driving minibus enters the tunnel, the GPS positioning will disappear, how to locate the minibus and achieve safe driving in the tunnel? After many experiments, China Unicom determined that the positioning within the tunnel was achieved by inertial navigation and 5G base station positioning technology. However, the difference in positioning technology inside and outside the tunnel makes for a time difference when switching.
"At the earliest, the time difference was about 5 seconds, which means that after entering the tunnel, the minibus had to stay for 5 seconds to achieve the switch and then drive again. This is undoubtedly not in line with the requirements. Liu Jie said that to this end, China Unicom technicians continued to debug the time difference of this switch, and finally achieved the switching speed to the millisecond level, basically achieving seamless switching. Not only has it achieved autonomous driving in technology, but it has also given passengers a more perfect sense of experience.