Analog Devices (ADI) and Momenta, an autonomous driving technology company based in Beijing and Suzhou, China, are collaborating to advance the development of high-definition (HD) maps in autonomous vehicles.

HD maps are a critical element of autonomous driving and must deliver accurate, real-time information to help safely guide the vehicle to its destination. As part of the collaboration, ADI's inertial measurement units (IMUs) will be used to improve the mapping system setup and technology upgrades in Momenta’s L3 freeway ramp-to-ramp solution and L4 full autonomy driving solutions.

Under poor weather conditions, or when a GPS signal is lost, an IMU becomes essential in delivering high-precision mapping output. ADI’s IMUs will be used to enhance Momenta’s mapping solutions to more effectively meet the accuracy requirements of HD maps. ADI’s IMUs exceed the value/performance ratio of higher cost alternative sensors based on fibre optic gyro or laser gyro technologies.

In creating HD maps, crowdsourcing has become a mainstream development tool due to its low cost and timely updating features. This is particularly important, for example, in Asia where infrastructure updates are frequent. Momenta’s vision-based semantic HD maps are crowdsourced, highly accurate and frequently updated. They have the capability to provide map update and localisation services. Momenta is also able to leverage modules mounted on taxis, trucks and buses at a large scale to create a crowdsourcing map for building the 'brains' of autonomous vehicles.