Timestamping and latency analysis for multi-sensor perception systems

This paper describes methods and tools for the analysis of measurement timestamps and time delays of different environmental perception sensors for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in order to allow a proper sensor data interpretation. These sensors are classified according to the way they timestamp their measurements. Thereby, three classes are defined: sensors with global timestamps, sensors with relative timestamps and sensors without measurement timestamps. This paper describes the concept and tools for analyzing and setting the timestamp of sensors from class I and II. For the classI, a global UTC¹-master time generator allows the creation of a relationship between the measurement and the acquisition timestamps. For the class II, a synchronization signal is periodically sent to the sensors which timestamp their data relative to this reference signal. The used tools for this analysis were thoroughly analyzed and verified.