Flexible hardware design for camera calibration and image pre-procesing in autonomous driving vehicles

A computer-implemented method for pre-processing images for autonomous driving, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a sensor unit via a sensor interface, a plurality of images from a plurality of cameras around an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV);
• performing one or more pre-processing functions on the images;
• and
• transmitting pre-processed images to a host system via a host interface, wherein the perception and planning system is configured to perceive a driving environment surrounding the ADV based on at least the pre-processed images and to plan a path to control the ADV to navigate through the driving environment.

An autonomous driving system, comprising:

• a plurality of sensors, the sensors including one or more cameras to capture images around an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV);
• a perception and planning system;
• and
• a sensor unit, wherein the sensor unit includes
• a sensor interface coupled to the sensors,
• a host interface coupled to the perception and planning system, and
• pre-processing hardware coupled to the sensor interface to receive images from the cameras, to perform one or more pre-processing functions on the images, and to transmit pre-processed images to the perception and planning system via the host interface, wherein the perception and planning system is configured to perceive a driving environment surrounding the ADV based on at least the pre-processed images and to plan a path to control the ADV to navigate through the driving environment.