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Case study

How Auve Tech calibrates 15 camera and lidar sensors on MiCa 2.0, an autonomous shuttle bus

Problem

  • Sensor calibration, 15+ sensors / vehicle
  • Needs to happen in different on-road municipalities
  • Simple process that generates reliable results

Solution

  • Calibrates any number and combination of sensors
  • Works anywhere: targetless, no checkerboards
  • MSA engineers validate every calibration
Calibration Anywhere

Company

Name
Auve Tech
Domain
On-road autonomy
Platform
MiCa, autonomous shuttle bus
Fleet
Deployed to 6+ countries
MiCa, autonomous shuttle bus

Featured engineer

Board Member & Head of Development, Auve Tech

Role: Leads MiCa HW and SW deployment

Backstory: Wrestled with multi-lidar alignment, ground plane detection, and object detection with poor calibrations

Main Street Autonomy accelerated our development plans by more than a year and enabled us to build and deploy vehicles to Estonia, Japan, the UAE, the UK, greater Europe, and now the United States.
15+
sensors
zero
checkerboards or targets
anywhere
calibration location

Previous solution

Auve Tech wrestled with a large number of sensors that made manual calibration time consuming and complicated. Auve Tech engineers calibrated individual sensors, but with so many sensors on the MiCa shuttle bus, it could take more than a full day to fully calibrate. Auve Tech’s previous calibration process was manual and target-based: the process required moving checkerboards or targets through the sensor FOV while engineers manually adjusted sensor extrinsics.

Limitations of Previous Solution

  • Required multiple engineers and took more than a full day per calibration
  • Required targets, checkerboards, and manual adjustment of sensor extrinsics
  • Did not address sensor intrinsics or time offsets
  • Generated a result that was operator-dependent

The Calibration Anywhere solution

Auve Tech safety operators move the MiCa shuttle bus in a figure-8 or three-point turn and capture sensor data for analysis by MSA. Results are available next day with human review, ensuring high-quality sensor calibation for safe and reliable autonomy.