NovAtel® Technology featured in Baidu Apollo Project

At the Baidu Create conference in Beijing, Baidu announced NovAtel’s partner, AutonomouStuff, as a member of their Autonomous Driving ecosystem - Project Apollo.

Project Apollo has been initiated to provide an open, comprehensive and reliable software platform for Baidu's partners in the automotive and autonomous driving industries. Partners can use the Apollo open software platform together with the reference hardware platform to accelerate development of their customized autonomous vehicle solutions. Based on their extensive experience in autonomous system development, AutonomouStuff will provide the “Apollo Kit” to Baidu Apollo partners. The Apollo Kit includes the vehicle—a Lincoln MKZ with by-wire kit installed—and all hardware, software and services required for an Apollo partner to quickly begin developing their autonomous vehicle.

Accurate and reliable positioning is essential to any autonomous system. NovAtel SPAN GNSS/INS products will provide position, orientation and time as a critical component of the AutonomouStuff Apollo Kit.

NovAtel components integrated into the Apollo kit include:

• ProPak6™ dual-antenna SPAN® GNSS/INS enclosure
• IMU-IGM-A1™ Inertial Measurement Unit
• GPS-703-GGG-HV high-precision GNSS antennas

Allan MacAulay, Business Development Manager, Safety Critical Systems for NovAtel, who was at the event in Beijing said: “NovAtel is proud to support Baidu and Project Apollo with our high-precision SPAN GNSS+INS positioning solutions” adding “We were thrilled to be included in the ‘off-the-shelf, ready-to-use 1.0 reference vehicle and hardware’ and ‘Apollo Kit’ announcements by Baidu and AutonomouStuff at Baidu Create. Our technology is a key component on various Baidu autonomous and mobile mapping vehicles, demonstrating our extensive, long-standing support for Baidu and capability in the autonomous driving space.”

“This is a revolutionary movement that will have a major impact on the way developers utilize technology in the future,” said AutonomouStuff CEO Bobby Hambrick. “Apollo is a breakthrough. What used to take decades can now be available in one single day. NovAtel’s reliable GNSS/INS positioning technology is vital to accelerating autonomy development, and as our long-term partner we are delighted to extend our collaboration to the Apollo Kit. The relationship between Baidu and AutonomouStuff, where NovAtel provides a key technology, is going to change the industry significantly.”

In early 2015, NovAtel took an important step towards delivering positioning solutions to the automotive and autonomous driving industries for serial production by forming a specialized Safety Critical Systems Group. The group is comprised of highly skilled engineers with backgrounds in functional safety as well as all aspects of GNSS and Inertial Navigation Systems technology. The Safety Critical Systems Group is focused on creating positioning products that will meet the exceptional performance and safety requirements of autonomous vehicles at the necessary production volumes and the required price point.

About NovAtel 

NovAtel designs, manufactures and sells high precision OEM positioning technology. Developed for efficient and rapid integration, our products have set the standard in quality and performance for over 20 years. State-of-the-art, lean manufacturing facilities in our North American headquarters produce the industry’s most extensive line of OEM receivers, antennas and subsystems. All of our products are backed by a team of highly skilled application engineers.

NovAtel Inc. is part of Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B; hexagon.com), a leading global provider of information technologies that drive quality and productivity across geospatial and industrial enterprise applications.

About AutonomouStuff

AutonomouStuff is proud to provide the world's most cutting-edge organizations with the best products, software and engineering services to enable robotics and autonomy. The company was founded with the goal of bringing together the world’s best technologies to enable autonomy and increase safety. AutonomouStuff now provides an entire fleet of R&D Platforms that serve as a safe and reliable way to test automation technologies.

The top priority for the team at AutonomouStuff is customer success. Customers value the convenience of finding the most cutting-edge modular-based automation software solutions, engineering services, perception, computing, GPS and interface components in one location. For more information, visit www.AutonomouStuff.com. 

Your regional media contact:

Allan MacAulay, Business Development Manager, Safety Critical Systems
Tel:1-647-342-7507
Email: allan.macaulay@novatel.com