"Believe me, ADAS is real, it’s here today and growing exponentially.," says David Erickson of Bosch.
Bosch manufacture sensors, ECU’s and components for the automotive industry as well as calibration equipment including diagnostic tools for OEM’s and the aftermarket and has been a part of this seemingly recent phenomena since its inception.
Emergency Brake Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, Cross Traffic Assist/Alert, Lane Change Assist, Lane Keep Assist, Lane Departure Warning, Collision Avoidance, Pedestrian Detection, Traffic Sign Recognition, Intelligent Head Lights, Park Assist, Surround View, Birds Eye View, Blind Spot Detection, Rear Collision Warning and the list goes on. These features are in vehicles today and you need to know about it.
"In Australia, we released our first calibration equipment for Aftermarket workshops in 2015. On release, there were 20 models in our carpark that required camera calibration. In the four years proceeding this has grown to about 400."
The need for ADAS calibration is becoming more frequent too, in the past it may have only been required after serious collision repair. However, we’re now seeing it after some more common or ‘simple” jobs. Have you ever changed the thrust angle during a wheel alignment? Removed a bumper from a late model European car? Both of these examples now require the vehicle to undertake ADAS calibration. Other procedures require it too. Windscreen replacement, suspension repairs or modification, sensor failures or even minor panel repairs to a bumper that has changed the paint thickness over a sensor
Radar and cameras are the two more commonplace pieces of hardware you are likely to encounter. Radar began alongside the introduction of cruise control systems decades ago, and now being used in the likes of Pedestrian Detection, Adaptive Cruise Control and Emergency Braking systems. The radars we see today are much more refined and intelligent than in its adolescent day.
Cameras are used for Lane Departure Warning, Park Assist and Surround View monitoring to name but a few.
While less commonplace in the Australian market LIDAR (used for environment mapping, night vision) and Laser Distance Measurements are coming into more mainstream vehicles and particularly as we move ever closer toward autonomous vehicles.
In a majority of cases, cameras and radar act independently of the vehicles ECU’s forming part of the sensor and communicating on the CANBUS. Fusion is becoming more common where a central ECU starts to process information from multiple sensors.
For example the Radar will detect there is an object in front of us, how fast it is going and how far away from us it is. The camera will tell us what it is (car, truck, bridge), and also that the road now starts to turn off to the right. The LIDARi s able to place and overlay over this and all of a sudden we have 3D image of what is taking place in our space on the road in real time, where super-fast and accurate decisions can be made about a potentially dangerous situation before we are even aware of it.
Bosch offers a one day training course to learn about the sensor technology and how it applies to us in the real world along with learning about its calibration equipment and to help understand the many aspects of ADAS systems and how they affect your business.
"Don’t sit back and wait for this technology to pass you by, it can be terrifying from the outside but at the same time pretty exciting," says Erickson
For more information call: 1300 783 031 or email.