Centralized scheduling system using event loop for operating autonomous driving vehicles

1. A computer-implemented method for operating an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV), the method comprising:

maintaining an event queue to store input and output (TO) events generated from a plurality of sensors and timer events generated for a plurality of autonomous driving modules, the autonomous driving modules including a perception module to perceive a driving environment surrounding the ADV based on sensor data obtained from the sensors and a planning module to plan a trajectory to autonomously drive the ADV through the driving environment; and

for each of the events stored in the event queue, iteratively performing

in response to determining that the event is an IO event, storing data associated with the IO event in a global store, and

in response to determining that the event is a timer event,

launching a worker thread associated with the timer event, including identifying a first autonomous driving module based on the timer event, and launching the worker thread to execute a first autonomous driving module that triggered the timer event, and

identifying, by hashing an identifier of the timer event, one or more data structures of the global store to retrieve input data stored in the global store that is associated with the timer event; and

providing the input data retrieved from the global store to the worker thread to allow the worker thread to process the input data;

receiving a notification from the worker thread indicating that the input data has been processed;

in response to the notification, extracting first output data from the notification; and

storing the first output data in the global store.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the input data is retrieved from a first data structure of the one or more data structures stored in the global store, wherein the first data structure is specified by hashing the identifier of the timer event.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the input data to the first autonomous driving module comprises passing a memory pointer of a memory location of the global store to the worker thread without copying the input data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first output data is stored in a first data structure of the one or more data structures of the global store, and wherein the first data structure is associated with the first autonomous driving module.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each data structure of the global store is associated with one of the plurality of sensors or one of the plurality of autonomous driving modules.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein in response to the notification, one or more second data structures of the global store that are associated with the first autonomous driving module are identified, the one or more second data structures being used to store the first output data.

7. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

maintaining an event queue to store input and output (TO) events generated from a plurality of sensors and timer events generated for a plurality of autonomous driving modules, the autonomous driving modules including a perception module to perceive a driving environment surrounding the ADV based on sensor data obtained from the sensors and a planning module to plan a trajectory to autonomously drive the ADV through the driving environment; and

for each of the events stored in the event queue, iteratively performing

in response to determining that the event is an IO event, storing data associated with the IO event in a global store, and

in response to determining that the event is a timer event,

launching a worker thread associated with the timer event, including identifying a first autonomous driving module based on the timer event, and launching the worker thread to execute a first autonomous driving module that triggered the timer event;

identifying, by hashing an identifier of the timer event, one or more data structures of the global store to retrieve input data stored in the global store that is associated with the timer event; and

providing the input data retrieved from the global store to the worker thread to allow the worker thread to process the input data

receiving a notification from the worker thread indicating that input data has been processed;

in response to the notification, extracting first output data from the notification; and

storing the first output data in the global store.

8. The machine-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the input data is retrieved from a first data structure of the one or more data structures stored in the global store, wherein the first data structure is specified by hashing the identifier of the timer event.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein providing the input data to the first autonomous driving module comprises passing a memory pointer of a memory location of the global store to the worker thread without copying the input data.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the first output data is stored in a first data structure of the one or more data structures of the global store, and wherein the first data structure is associated with the first autonomous driving module.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein each data structure of the global store is associated with one of the plurality of sensors or one of the plurality of autonomous driving modules.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein in response to the notification, one or more second data structures of the global store that are associated with the first autonomous driving module are identified, the one or more second data structures being used to store the first output data.

13. A data processing system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor to store instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations including

maintaining an event queue to store input and output (TO) events generated from a plurality of sensors and timer events generated for a plurality of autonomous driving modules, the autonomous driving modules including a perception module to perceive a driving environment surrounding the ADV based on sensor data obtained from the sensors and a planning module to plan a trajectory to autonomously drive the ADV through the driving environment, and

for each of the events stored in the event queue, iteratively performing

in response to determining that the event is an IO event, storing data associated with the IO event in a global store, and

in response to determining that the event is a timer event,

launching a worker thread associated with the timer event, including identifying a first autonomous driving module based on the timer event, and launching the worker thread to execute a first autonomous driving module that triggered the timer event; and

providing the input data retrieved from the global store to the worker thread to allow the worker thread to process the input data

receiving a notification from the worker thread indicating that the input data has been processed;

in response to the notification, extracting first output data from the notification; and

storing the first output data in the global store.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first input data is retrieved from a first data structure stored in the global store, wherein the first data structure is specified by the timer event.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein providing the input data to the first autonomous driving module comprises passing a memory pointer of a memory location of the global store to the worker thread without copying the input data.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first output data is stored in a first data structure of the one or more data structures of the global store, and wherein the first data structure is associated with the first autonomous driving module.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein each data structure of the global store is associated with one of the plurality of sensors or one of the plurality of autonomous driving modules.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein in response to the notification, one or more second data structures of the global store that are associated with the first autonomous driving module are identified, the one or more second data structures being used to store the first output data.