The NVIDIA® DriveWorks Pre-Flight Checker tool (PFC) ensures proper operation for all connected sensors, and checks prerequisites before the car can be safely driven autonomously.
The PFC can only be used in a stationary car.
The PFC checks the following items:
You can run PFC in these modes:
During installation, PFC is initialized for the current configuration.
The Pre-Flight Checker (PFC) tool performs the following in both autonomous vehicle mode and bench mode:
PFC performs sensor validation by calculating the frequencies for which sensors provide data. It performs data validations specific for the following sensors:
This tool is available on NVIDIA DRIVE™ OS Linux and NVIDIA DRIVE™ OS QNX.
PFC runs on these hardware platforms:
For information related to the following, see the NVIDIA DRIVE AV Release Notes:
PFC must be installed with NVIDIA DRIVE™ AV.
Below are the prerequisites to ensure correct PFC results during bench mode validation. In bench mode, sensor data can come from both recordings and sensors.
Below are the prerequisites to ensure correct PFC results during autonomous vehicle mode validation.
Run this tool by navigating to:
/usr/local/driveworks/tools/preFlightChecker/config
and executing:
./pfc_run.sh
Run the tool by executing:
./pfc_run.sh --rig=[rig_file_path] --car=[car name] --no-gui
For example:
./pfc_run.sh --rig=hyperion-7-1-release.json --car=agx-rel --no-gui
For NVIDIA Hyperion 7.1, the config rig file is available at:
/usr/local/driveworks/tools/preFlightChecker/config/hyperion7-1-release.json
PFC updates the log output as specified in this file. For more information regarding this log, refer to Output.
PFC performs the same checks in bench mode as it does in autonomous vehicle mode. However, CAN devices are unavailable in bench mode. These devices include
brake, throttle, gear, and steering. As a result, validation for these devices will always fail.
Run the tool by executing:
./pfc_run.sh --rig=[rig_file_path]
For example:
./pfc_run.sh --rig=hyperion-7-1-release.json
For NVIDIA Hyperion 7.1, the config rig file is available at:
/usr/local/driveworks/tools/preFlightChecker/config/hyperion7-1-release.json
The following lists the required command line arguments for each mode.
--rig= Parameter: --rig=[rig_file_path] Description: The path of the rig.json file specifying each sensor to validate based on the setup configuration. Example: --rig=hyperion7-1-release.json --car= Parameter: --car=[rig_file_path] Description: Identifies the specific vehicle for PFC. For the NVIDIA AGX Platform, set this parameter to `agx-rel`. Default value: bench Example: --car=agx-rel
--rig= Parameter: --rig=[rig_file_path] Description: The path of the rig.json file specifying each sensor to validate based on the setup configuration. Example: --rig=hyperion7-1-release.json
--no-gui Parameter: --no-gui Description: Disables the PFC GUI, and displays only the result on the console.
This is an example of the log output specified in For Autonomous Vehicle Mode. It displays the current sensor status in a sequence of four pages: one Summary and three Detail.
Displays a status summary for all sensors. Press the LEFT-ARROW and RIGHT-ARROW keys to navigate between pages.
Displays a detailed status log with sensor information. The log provides the following information:
Information | Description |
---|---|
SENSOR TYPE | The type of sensor. |
SENSOR NAME | Sensor name and type as specified in rig file, i.e., camera, Lidar, or Radar. This field also displays the sensor position if available. |
INIT | Sensor initialization status. |
DATA-RATE (MP/s) | Rate for which the sensor feeds data to the PFC (in megapixels per second). Applies to camera sensors only. |
FREQUENCY (Hz) | Number of frames available per second (in Hertz). |
DATA-VALIDATE | Status of the data validity check performed on sensors. Possible values are: - VALID: Sensor provides valid data. - NOT_IMPL: Support for the specified sensor is not implemented. - NA: Indicates the attribute does not apply to the sensor. |
The following is an example of the detailed status log.
If debug logs are enabled, there is a possibility of CAN Sanity and IMU/GPS data-validity failure. This failure is from the logging latency.
For information on how PFC determines data validity, please refer to Features.
This section explains how to interpret information in the detailed sensor log.
The FREQUENCY
field for a sensor shows a value of zero when data is not available. This can happen even though the sensor is connected properly.
These symptoms can be due to:
The DATA-VALIDATE
field for a camera shows INVALID
when there are issues with the sensor position.