Baidu Apollo new version Beta technology salon participation experience

In the field of autonomous driving, Baidu’s Apollo has always been the benchmark for open source in the industry. Its continuously upgraded and innovative open source projects have set a model for the entire autonomous driving industry, not only promoting the development of technology, but also providing a model for learning and reference for the majority of community developers. Baidu recently released a new Beta version of Apollo. The new version Beta is based on engineering technology, algorithm technology and On the afternoon of December 2, Baidu held a technical salon in Shougang Baidu Park. Baidu engineers communicated face-to-face with community developers and introduced the latest Apollo Beta version. The blogger is very fortunate to participate in this technical exchange meeting. community developers. has been fully upgraded in three directions, which has attracted widespread attention from Tool support

(The picture shows the exterior view of Shougang·Baidu Apollo Park Building)

The salon starts on time at 2pm! The room was filled with enthusiastic developers. Amid everyone's expectations, the host introduced the guests and the salon agenda.

This salon has a total of four speech agendas: an overall introduction to the new version upgrade, technology sharing in the engineering direction, technology sharing in the algorithm direction, and technology sharing in the tool chain direction.

(The picture shows Baidu engineers introducing the main upgrade points and timeline of multiple iterations of Apollo)

What impressed me most was the technology sharing in the engineering direction. Because the blogger is engaged in the development of deep learning frameworks, he knows how to coordinate the internal operations of the deep learning framework and maximize the value of the algorithm is a very challenging task.

(The picture shows Baidu engineers introducing the current complexity of Apollo experience among different developers)

The needs of different developers are actually very different. Some basic developers may still be learning and familiarizing themselves with the framework. However, there are nearly 800,000 lines of code in the Apollo code base. Such a large and complex code is divided into perception modules and planning modules. , technical modules, etc. It is actually difficult for basic developers at the entry level to figure out the overall framework module and the technical points in each module. However, for advanced developers like bloggers, we need to fully expand the Apollo module for different scenarios. However, the high degree of customization and coupling of the original code makes it challenging to expand the scenario. Therefore, the different needs of different developers need to be supported on the framework side.

This time Apollo introduced a software package management mechanism into the framework, laying a solid foundation for decoupling the dependencies between modules in the release process. Developers with different needs can extend Apollo components through direct reuse. This flexibility and Scalability provides developers with greater freedom, making customization and integration of different modules more efficient and convenient. In the old version, all Apollo source codes needed to be downloaded in full, and the process of installing dependencies was very cumbersome. The process of environment installation and code cloning configuration really discouraged many novice players. In the latest Beta version, it is not only possible to download by package, but also can be unpacked according to different business functions, making it easier for advanced developers to expand their applications.

(The picture shows the optimization methods of package management in various versions of Apollo)

In addition, Apollo has also established a developer feedback collection mechanism, covering developers with different needs and levels. There will be specialized technical experts responsible for different modules, which has greatly improved the operation of the open source community. efficiency.

Pleasant time always passes quickly. After the four teachers shared, the last part of the salon was free communication. The enthusiastic developers surrounded Baidu engineers to exchange questions, and Baidu engineers also responded very enthusiastically. Developers, I also discussed some framework issues with the teacher. Finally, we took a group photo together. It was an unforgettable afternoon!

(The picture shows a group photo)