MORAI Inc. (CEO Ji-won Jung) participated in 'SWITCH 2022 (The Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology 2022)', a global startup exhibition held at the Singapore Resort World Convention Centre from October 25th (Tue) to 28th (Fri).
MORAI is a company that develops simulation software necessary to verify the safety and reliability of autonomous driving systems. It was established by autonomous driving researchers from KAIST(Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology) in 2018 when they felt in need of simulation platform for autonomous driving. It is the only company in Korea to develop and supply a full-stack autonomous driving simulation solution including a core engine.
In addition, through the completion of the digital twin automatic construction technology with HD map data, they can support customers to more accurately verify autonomous driving software and systems by reenacting the complex road environment in the same virtual environment. They have established cooperative relationships with Korean and foreign companies with their independently developed autonomous driving simulation technology and have also attracted investment in recognition of their competitiveness. From 2018 to 2021, they attracted seed and Series A investment in recognition of outstanding technology from companies and investment institutions such as NAVER, Hyundai Motor Company, Kakao Ventures, and Atinum Investment. After that, they have attracted 25 billion KRW series B investment from existing investors and new investors including Korea Investment Partners, KB Investment, Korea Development Bank in February 2022, achieving a cumulative investment of about 30 billion KRW.
MORAI is currently supplying simulators to major domestic companies such as Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai AutoEver, Hyundai MOBIS, NAVER LABS, and 42dot, as well as research institutes and universities such as the Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute and Korea Automotive Technology Institute. They are entering the global market through cooperating with international companies including NVIDIA, Amazon Web Service(AWS), Velodyne Lidar, Ansys and more.
‘MORAI SIM’, MORAI’s simulation platform, provides a realistic high-fidelity simulation environment and a virtual platform that includes sensors, vehicle models, and scenarios. Scenario tests that are difficult to verify on real roads, such as the risk of pedestrian collisions, can be repeated tens of thousands of times, enabling reliable and safe verification. The recently developed ‘MORAI SIM CLOUD’ is characterized by introducing a SaaS method to the existing product, and it can produce the same effect as simulating thousands of units simultaneously with one PC in a cloud environment without a separate program.
By creating realistic test scenarios in a virtual environment based on real-world data, various edge-corner case tests are possible, and also by applying mixed reality technology, vehicle-in-the-Loop (VIL) tests are also possible. In order to provide accurate simulation of the vehicle movement, it offers high-precision vehicle dynamics customization and a variety of sensor models including cameras, LiDAR, GPS, radar and inertial measurement unit (IMU). Through automatic annotations along with weather and light control functions, it is possible to automatically create a user-customized data set. MORAI’s own server distinguishes itself by enabling distribution of computational processing for sensors and vehicles facilitating fast simulation.
An official from MORAI said, “Our strength lies in the automatic conversion of digital twins based on HD map data. MORAI has developed its own technology that automatically builds digital twins based on HD map data and provides an environment that can simulate the road on which autonomous vehicles will run with a high degree of completeness. We can proudly say that MORAI’s automation technology is the highest quality in the world. 95%-level of automation can be achieved, and a city the size of Las Vegas in the US can be implemented in a very short time, which would take about a day. Not only Korean companies but many companies from overseas are showing interest in this technology.”
In fact, MORAI built a digital twin simulation environment with a precision of 10cm by using HD map data. Currently, MORAI’s simulation platform ‘MORAI SIM’ has been used to build locations in Korea such as Seoul, Pangyo, and Daegu and in 20 regions around the world, including Singapore, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Seattle from the US, in cooperation with overseas map partners.
They also have vehicle modeling technology similar to real vehicles, so it is possible to manufacture a vehicle for simulation with the same ratio and size as in reality. The shape of the vehicle sensor can also be maintained, and can be arbitrarily placed in the desired position in the simulation. It uses vehicle behavior test data to support movements similar to actual vehicles, and supports sedan, SUV, commercial vehicle (bus·truck) as well as urban air mobility (UAM).
