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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 Autoware 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 project. Each image packages a focused part of the autonomous driving pipeline, which makes it possible to compose different AD systems from a common container set.

The primary images include:

  • Sensing and Perception: Collects and processes sensor data.
  • Localization and Mapping: Manages maps and vehicle pose estimation.
  • Planning and Control: Produces and follows the driving trajectory.
  • Vehicle and System: Packages vehicle interfaces and system-level services in the vehicle-system image.
  • API: Offers an interface for external systems to interact with the vehicle.
  • Simulator: Allows testing the AD stack in a virtual environment.
  • Visualizer: Provides a browser-accessible RViz environment for remote inspection.

These images communicate through ROS 2 middleware, and some deployments bridge isolated environments with Zenoh. 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: Runs scenario-based simulations for validation, CI, and local development.

For more details, see the Tools.

Supported Platforms#

Open AD Kit currently documents Ubuntu as the primary development host and AutoSD as the platform-specific deployment path available in this repository. EWAOL is planned but does not yet ship runnable assets here.

Development platforms#

  • Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04

Platform-specific deployment paths#

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.