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Introduction#

Open AD Kit adopts a modular, component-based architecture designed for flexibility, scalability, and platform independence. It leverages cloud-native principles and containerization to decompose the Autoware Universe into a collection of interoperable components. This approach allows developers to create customized autonomous driving (AD) systems by combining components to meet their specific needs.

Architecture#

The Autoware Foundation is a voting member of the SOAFEE (Scalable Open Architecture For the Embedded Edge) initiative, as the Autoware Open AD Kit is the first SOAFEE blueprint for the software defined vehicle ecosystem.

Soafee Architecture

Deployments#

A deployment is a running instance of Open AD Kit, a specific combination of Autoware components configured to achieve a particular task, such as a simulation or a full autonomous driving stack.

Deployments are defined using container orchestration files (e.g., docker-compose.yaml). This makes them portable and easy to reproduce across different environments, from a developer's laptop to edge devices in a vehicle. This container-based approach is a cornerstone of the Open AD Kit's cloud-native and platform-agnostic philosophy, aligning with standards like SOAFEE.

This modular structure allows users to start with a minimal deployment and incrementally add components and tools as their system evolves.

For more details, see the Deployments.

Components#

The core functional components of the Open AD Kit are derived from the main Autoware Universe project. Each component is packaged as an independent containerized component, responsible for a specific aspect of the autonomous driving pipeline. This modular approach provides flexibility in composing different AD systems by combining different components.

The primary components include:

  • Sensing: Collects data from various sensors (Cameras, Lidars, Radars).
  • Perception: Processes sensor data to detect and track objects in the environment.
  • Mapping: Creates and maintains maps of the environment.
  • Localization: Determines the vehicle's position within the map.
  • Planning: Plans the vehicle's trajectory from its current location to a destination.
  • Control: Sends commands to the vehicle's actuators to follow the planned trajectory.
  • Vehicle: Manages the vehicle's internal state and interface.
  • System: Provides system-level functionalities like health monitoring.
  • API: Offers an interface for external systems to interact with the vehicle.
  • Simulator: Allows for testing the AD stack in a virtual environment with ad-hoc simulations.

These components communicate with each other over a service mesh, allowing for flexible deployment and scaling. For more details, see the Autoware components.

Tools#

In addition to the Autoware components, Open AD Kit provides essential tools for development, simulation, and visualization. These tools are also containerized and can be integrated into deployments as needed.

  • Scenario Simulator-TBD: Allows for testing the AD stack in a virtual environment. It supports complex scenario-based simulations for validation and CI/CD.

For more details, see the Tools.

Supported Platforms#

Open AD Kit supports a variety of platforms as development and SOAFEE production platforms.

Development platforms#

  • Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04

SOAFEE Production platforms#

For more details, see the Supported SOAFEE Platforms.

Supported Hardware#

For detailed information on system requirements, tested hardware, and cloud instances, please refer to the Hardware section.