Design of an Efficient CAN-Bus Network with LPMS-IG1

Introduction to Designing an Efficient CAN-Bus Network

This article describes how to design an efficient high speed CAN-bus network with LPMS-IG1. We offer several sensor types with a CAN bus connection. The CAN bus is a popular network standard for applications like automotive, aerospace and industrial automation where connecting a large number of sensor and actuation units with a limited amount of cabling is required.

While creating a CAN bus network is not difficult by itself, there are a few key aspects that an engineer should follow in order to achieve optimum performance.

Efficient CAN-Bus Network Topology

A common mistake when designing a CAN bus network is to use a star topology to connect devices to each other. In this topology the signal from each device is routed to a center piece by connections of similar length. The center piece is connected to the host to acquire and distribute data to the devices of the network.

For reaching the full performance of a CAN bus network, we strongly discourage using this topology. Most CAN bus setups designed in this way will fail to work reliably and at high speed.

The CAN bus standard’s fundamental concept is to work best in a daisy chain configuration, with one sensor unit or the data acquisition host being the first device in the chain and one device being the last in the network.

Maximum CAN-Bus Speed and Cable Length

A key aspect for the design of an efficient high speed CAN-bus network is to correctly adjust bus cable lengths. The bus line running past each device is to be the longest connection in the network. Each sensor needs to be connected to the bus by a short stub connection. A typical length for such a stub connection is 10-30cm, whereas the main bus line can have a length of hundreds of meters, depending on the desired transmission speed.

Speed in bit/s Maximum Cable Length
1 Mbit/s 20 m
800 kbit/s 40 m
500 kbit/s 100 m
250 kbit/s 250 m
125 kbit/s 500 m

Note that a CAN bus network needs to be terminated using a 120 Ohm resistor at each end. This is especially important for bus length of more than 1-2m and should be considered as general good practice.

LPMS-IG1 CAN-Bus Configuration

One of our products with a CAN bus interface option is our LPMS-IG1 high performance inertial measurement unit. LPMS-IG1 can be flexibly configured to satisfy user requirements. It has the ability to output data using the CANopen standard, freely configurable sequential streaming or our proprietary binary format LP-BUS. These and further parameters can be set via our IG1-Control data acquisition application.

Some CAN bus data loggers that rely on the CANopen standard require users to provide an EDS file to automatically configure each device on the network. While we don’t support the automatic generation of EDS files from our data acquisition applications, depending on the settings in IG1-Control or LPMS-Control, it is possible to manually create an EDS file as described in this tutorial.

In this article we give a few essential insights into how to design an efficient high speed CAN-bus network with LPMS-IG1. If you would like to know more about this topic or have any questions, let us know!

LPVR-DUO Featured at Unity for Industry Japan Conference

Unity for Industry Conference – XRは次のステージへ

LPVR-DUO has been featured at the Unity for Industry online conference in Japan. TOYOTA project manager Koichi Kayano introduced LPVR-DUO with Varjo XR-1 and ART Smarttrack 3 for in-car augmented reality (see the slide above).

Besides explaining the fundamental functional principle of LPVR-DUO inside a moving vehicle – using a fusion of HMD IMU data, vehicle-fixed inertial measurements and outside-in optical tracking information – Mr. Kayano presented videos of content for a potential end-user application:

Based on a heads-up display-like visualization, TOYOTA’s implementation shows navigation and speed information to the driver. The images below show two driving situations with a virtual dashboard augmentation overlay.

AR Head-Mounted Display vs. Heads-Up Display

This use-case leads us to a discussions of the differences between an HMD-based visualization solution and a heads-up display (HUD) that is e.g. fixed stationary to the top of a car’s console. While putting on a head mounted display does require a minor additional effort by the driver, there are several advantages of using a wearable device in this scenario.

Content can be displayed at any location in the car, from projecting content onto the dashboard, the middle console, the side windows etc. A heads-up display works only in one specific spot.

As the HMD shows information separately to the left and right eye of the driver, we can display three-dimensional images. This allows for accurate placement of objects in 3D space. The correct positioning within the field of view of the driver is essential for safety relevant data. In case of a hazardous situation detected by a car’s sensor array the driver will know exactly where the danger is occurring from.

These are just two of many aspects that set HMD-based augmented reality apart from a heads-up display. The fact that large corporations like TOYOTA are starting to investigate this specific topic shows that the application of augmented reality in the car will be an important feature for the future of mobility.

NOTE: Image contents courtesy of TOYOTA Motor Corporation.

LPNAV – Outdoor Operation and 2D Map Building for Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV)

LPNAV for Flexible, Rapid AGV Deployment

LPNAV enables automatic guided vehicles (AGV) to rapidly understand their environment and be ready for safe and efficient operation; no calibration, manual map building etc. is required.

With the help of LPNAV, mobile logistics platforms can operate (localize) in both, indoor and outdoor environments with the same set of sensors (Figure 1) and a unified map, e.g. when transporting an item from inside a warehouse to a truck parked in front of the warehouse. This offers a big cost-saving potential for applications in which so far the transition from indoor to outdoor settings required specialized equipment or manual handling.

Outdoor Localization

In a previous post we have shown the capability of LPNAV to operate in a small, crowded indoor environment. After further optimization of the algorithm we are now able to show the system working well in outdoor settings. Uncontrolled outdoor environments are particularly challenging as lighting conditions can vary very strongly and perception can be disturbed by pedestrians, passing cars etc.

In the video above we show the following capabilities of the system:

  • LPNAV is able to build a 3D map of its environment and localizes itself in real-time relative to its starting position.
  • Previously acquired map data can be used for localization. The map is automatically updated to environment changes.
  • When manually placed at a deliberate location on the map, an LPNAV-powered robot can instantly re-localize.
  • The system is robust to camera occlusions. Sensor fusion with IMU and odometry allows temporary operation without visual features.

Figure 1 – LPNAV combines information from visual SLAM (camera), inertial measurement unit (IMU), distance sensors (lidar, IR) and wheel encoder data to calculate low-latency, high-accuracy localization results. The robot maps its environment to both, a 3D point cloud map and a human-readable 2D obstacle map.

2D Real-time Map Building

The 3D point-cloud maps built by LPNAV’s visual SLAM work well for computational localization of the robot inside its environment, but they are hard to intuitively understand by humans. Therefore we added a feature to LPNAV that allows building 2D maps of the robot environment based on information from its IR distance sensors. To achieve 2D wall / obstacle mapping at larger distances, alternatively to the IR sensors a 2D Lidar can be used.

The 2D real-time mapping capability is demonstrated in the video below:

LPNAV-VAC – Cost-Efficient Navigation System for AGVs

Introduction

We’re proud to announce a breakthrough result in the development of our LPNAV low-cost navigation system for small-sized automatic guided vehicles (AGV).

One focus area of LPNAV are vacuum cleaning robots that require spatial understanding of their environment to calculate an optimum cleaning strategy. As vacuum cleaning robots are mainly consumer devices, solutions for this market need to be cost-efficient, while maintaining state-of-the-art performance.

Figure 1 – The LPNAV-VAC development kit contains a robot platform, a dedicated computing unit, an IMU sensor and a camera

Development Platform

LPNAV-VAC combines three different data sources in order to calculate a robot’s position inside a room: an inertial measurement unit, data from the robot’s wheel encoders and video images from a camera installed on the robot (Figure 1). A central computing unit combines the information from these data sources to simultaneously create a map of the surroundings of the robot and calculate the position of the robot inside the room.

It is essential that sensor fusion algorithm is able to dynamically update the map it is constructing. As new sensor information arrives the map is continuously adapted to reflect an optimized view the robot’s environment.

While this principle of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is an established method for some robot navigation systems, these solutions tend to rely on laser scanners (LIDAR) or vision-only reconstruction. The combination of all available data sources in the robot allows LPNAV-VAC to create high definition maps of the environment while using low-cost, off-the-shelf components.

First Demonstration

In the demonstration video above my colleague and main developer of LPNAV-VAC is steering our AGV platform through the ground floor of our Tokyo office. While the right side of the screen shows the view from the robot camera and detected visual features, the right side shows the path of the robot through the environment. As the robot progresses through the room a 3D map is created and continuously updated.

Please note that the robot doesn’t lose tracking during turns, while driving over small steps in the room or with changing environment lighting. Also Thomas moving around in front of the camera doesn’t disturb the LPNAV algorithm.

Using this map and the robot’s position information a path planning algorithm can find an optimum path for the robot to efficiently clean the room.

See-through Display First Look – LPVIZ (Part 3)

Virtual Dashboard Demonstration

This is a follow-up post to the introduction of our in-vehicle AR head mounted display LPVIZ part 1 and part 2.

To test LPVIZ we created a simple demo scenario of an automotive virtual dashboard. We created a Unity scene with graphic elements commonly found on a vehicle dashboard. We animated these elements to make the scene look more realistic.

This setup is meant for static testing at our shop. For further experiments inside a moving vehicle we are planning to connect the animated elements directly to car data (speed etc.) communicated over the CAN bus.

The virtual dashboard is only a very simple example to show the basic functionality of LPVIZ. As described in a previous post, many a lot more sophisticated applications can be implemented.

The video above was taken through the right eye optical waveguide display of LPVIZ. We took this photo with a regular smartphone camera and therefore it is not very high quality. Nevertheless, it confirms that the display is working and correctly shows the virtual dashboard.

The user is looking at the object straight ahead. In case the user rotates his head or changes position, his view of the object will change perspectively. An important point to mention is the high luminosity of the display. We took this photo with the interior lighting in our shop turned on normally, and without any additional shade in front of the display.

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