Sensor integration and synchronization unit for an autonomous driving vehicle

An autonomous driving system, comprising:

• a plurality of sensors mounted on a plurality of locations of an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV);
• a host system having a perception module and a planning and control module, wherein the perception module is to perceive a driving environment surrounding the ADV based on sensor data obtained from the sensors, and wherein the planning and control module is to plan a path to autonomously drive the ADV;
• and
• a sensor unit coupled to the plurality of sensors and the host system, wherein the sensor unit comprises
• a sensor interface to be coupled to a plurality of sensors mounted on a plurality of locations of an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV),
• a host interface to be coupled to a host system, wherein the host system is configured to perceive a driving environment surrounding the ADV based on sensor data obtained from the plurality of sensors and to plan a path to autonomously drive the ADV,
• a sensor control module coupled to the sensor interface, the sensor control module configured to control activation of capture of sensor data for each sensor in the plurality of sensors in accordance with a transmit timestamp for the sensor, the transmit timestamp received from a time module,
• a sensor processing module coupled to the sensor interface, the sensor processing module configured to process sensor data captured by each sensor in the plurality of sensors in accordance with a receive timestamp for the sensor, the receive timestamp received from a time module,
• and
• the time module coupled to the sensor processing module and the sensor control module to generate transmit timestamps to synchronize timing of transmission of control commands to each of the plurality of sensors, wherein the transmit timestamps indicate and ordering and a timing that sensor data is captured by each sensor in the plurality of sensors, and to generate receive timestamps to synchronize the timing that sensor data captured by each sensor in the plurality of sensors is processed, wherein the receive timestamps indicate an ordering and timing that the sensor data of each sensor in the plurality of sensors is processed.