ZF Annotate uses AI to develop ADAS

At the ZF Global Technology Day in Hanover, Germany on 27 June 2024, the group presented its ZF Annotate artificial intelligence (AI) development system. Precise sensor data is essential for the development of advanced assistance systems in vehicles. This data must be processed digitally correctly so that the vehicle always receives the “absolute truth” – known in the industry as “ground truth” – to calculate and implement a driving function based on it. Comparing the collected sensor information with a reliable and high-precision reference sensor set increases accuracy. And that’s where ZF Annotate comes in.

Based on the customer’s own vehicle data and additional ZF sensor data recordings – the reference measurement – the cloud-based service solution provides the “ground truth.” ZF Annotate acts as a redundant setup that is independent of the sensor set to be checked and is confronted with the same information while driving on the road. The recorded data is then uploaded to the cloud and analyzed. Thanks to artificial intelligence, all relevant objects are marked, classified, attributed and assigned unique ID numbers and moving objects are tracked. This object information forms part of the complete description of the environment model — the ground truth. After this “annotation,” the software provides a highly precise comparative measurement. This makes ZF Annotate a state-of-the-art, AI-supported validation solution for testing and training modern ADAS/AD systems from Level 2+ to Level 5.

“ZF Annotate combines the advantages of a robust and independent reference sensor set with a scalable cloud service that uses intelligent 2D and 3D tracking algorithms,” said Dr. Holger Klein, Chairman of the Board of Management.

Up to 10 times faster and 80 per cent cheaper

Previous comparable systems mainly relied on 2D annotation for the validation of reference data and thus map the environment in distance and horizontal angle. The 3D-capable ZF Annotate adds height information to the data. “This makes our solution a unique, intelligent ‘cloud factory’ in the industry, which optimizes a previously labor-intensive, costly service in several respects,” explained Klein.

“Thanks to artificial intelligence, we can speed up the validation process by up to 10 times and thus reduce an annotation from 12 to two months. This saves our customers time and money,” continued Klein.  “With ZF Annotate, we are able to generate a ‘ground truth’ in the shortest possible time,” says Klaus Hofmockel, Head of Research and Development in the Driver Assistance Systems and Electronics division. “With the ability to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, our cloud-based service completes the validation of reference data in a remarkably short time compared to the market, without any loss of quality.”