NextDroid Selects RTI’s Connectivity Technology for Its State-of-the-Art Autonomous Systems

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 10, 2018 -- Real-Time Innovations (RTI), the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity company, today announced that NextDroid, a leading autonomous vehicle and robotics company, has selected RTI Connext® DDS as the connectivity framework for its self-driving vehicles. NextDroid is currently developing a wide range of autonomous systems across both the automotive and maritime space. The company is leveraging RTI’s technology as part of a modular software architecture that enables real-time processing of a variety of sensor data across a distributed computing platform.

Autonomous vehicles are highly complex and dynamic systems. These systems must meet demanding requirements including safety, security and fast data processing. Connext DDS provides the essential framework needed to reliably communicate between nodes within the autonomous car. Balancing the communication requirements of a multitude of subsystems is critical to ensuring that information moves seamlessly throughout the vehicle. Connext DDS provides the tools necessary to make such a complex system practical.

NextDroid relies on RTI to manage the full scope of messaging in the company’s autonomous systems. Their distributed computing architecture requires a form of seamless connectivity where software modules can freely move around computational resources as the system evolves. The data passing between NextDroid’s modules is highly varied. Sensor data within NextDroid’s systems is often high bandwidth, and requires timely delivery to multiple nodes. This is intermingled with control signals and event-based messages, which have differing requirements on bandwidth, latency and reliability. They need a guarantee that messages will be delivered quickly and efficiently, from sensors, through software modules, to controllers, with minimal overhead.  

"Robotics and automation capabilities are rapidly becoming a requirement for most industries," said Daniel Gandhi, director of autonomous vehicles at NextDroid. "As NextDroid brings these technologies from the research lab to market, we look to RTI Connext DDS to provide our connectivity solution. Fielding autonomous vehicles to consumers requires not only performance and flexibility today, but the safety, security and reliability to deploy at scale. For systems that need to operate for billions of miles over decades, we rely on the proven pedigree of RTI's Connext DDS."

“Intelligent, autonomous systems are driving the largest market transition in history,” said Bob Leigh, senior market development director, autonomous systems, at RTI. “Connectivity is the driving technology of this market evolution and we are thrilled to work with innovative companies like NextDroid to accelerate adoption. As the autonomous vehicle market evolves, RTI Connext DDS continues to play a crucial role in accelerating the design, development and safety of these autonomous systems by providing an efficient, cost-effective and customized path for each of our customers.”

Read more about RTI’s work in the autonomous driving industry here

About RTI

Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity company. The RTI Connext® databus is a software framework that shares information in real time, making applications work together as one, integrated system. It connects across field, fog and cloud. Its reliability, security, performance and scalability are proven in the most demanding industrial systems. Deployed systems include medical devices and imaging; wind, hydro and solar power; autonomous planes, trains and cars; traffic control; Oil and Gas; robotics, ships and defense.

RTI lives at the intersection of functional artificial intelligence and pervasive networking^SM.

RTI is the largest vendor of products based on the Object Management Group (OMG) Data Distribution Service™ (DDS) standard. RTI is privately held and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

RTI is hiring aggressively; see www.rti.com/careers.

About NextDroid

Nextdroid is an advanced robotics firm focused on cutting-edge development within the automotive and maritime industries.  In the automotive sector, NextDroid is focused on mass-market autonomous driving solutions along with robust test and validation platforms – providing their OEM and Tier 1 customers a competitive advantage in the burgeoning autonomous vehicle space.

With close proximity to MIT and CMU, NextDroid’s Boston and Pittsburgh offices are comprised of highly qualified engineers.  The team is seasoned, proven and professional—with technical expertise, deep domain knowledge, and a track record for rapidly fielding systems in the harshest of environments.

NextDroid is hiring, email [email protected]

Media Contacts:
Rachel Shatz
Karbo Communications for RTI
650-270-1097
[email protected]

Cameron Smead
Public Relations Senior Manager at RTI
[email protected]

Tyler Burnett
Director, Business Development at NextDroid
[email protected]