Create and manage signal catalogs - AWS IoT FleetWise

Create and manage signal catalogs

Note

You can download a demo script to convert ROS 2 messages to VSS JSON files that are compatible with the signal catalog. For more information, see the Vision System Data Developer Guide.

A signal catalog is a collection of standardized signals that can be reused to create vehicle models. AWS IoT FleetWise supports Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) that you can follow to define signals. A signal can be any of the following type.

Attribute

Attributes represent static information that generally doesn't change, such as manufacturer and manufacturing date.

Branch

Branches represent signals in a nested structure. Branches demonstrate signal hierarchies. For example, the Vehicle branch has a child branch, Powertrain. The Powertrain branch has a child branch, combustionEngine. To locate the combustionEngine branch, use the Vehicle.Powertrain.combustionEngine expression.

Sensor

Sensor data reports the current state of the vehicle and change over time, as the state of the vehicle changes, such as fluid levels, temperatures, vibrations, or voltage.

Actuator

Actuator data reports the state of a vehicle device, such as motors, heaters, and door locks. Changing the state of a vehicle device can update actuator data. For example, you can define an actuator to represent the heater. The actuator receives new data when you turn on or off the heater.

Custom structure

A custom structure (also known as a struct) represents a complex or higher-order data structure. It facilitates logical binding or grouping of data that originates from the same source. A struct is used when data is read or written in an atomic operation, such as to represent a complex data type or higher-order shape.

A signal of struct type is defined in the signal catalog using a reference to a struct data type instead of a primitive data type. Structs can be used for all types of signals including sensors, attributes, actuators, and vision system data types. If a signal of struct type is sent or received, AWS IoT FleetWise expects all included items to have valid values, so all items are mandatory. For example, if a struct contains the items Vehicle.Camera.Image.height, Vehicle.Camera.Image.width, and Vehicle.Camera.Image.data – it's expected that the sent signal contains values for all of these items.

Note

Vision system data is in preview release and is subject to change.

Custom property

A custom property represents a member of the complex data structure. The data type of the property can be either primitive or another struct.

When representing a higher-order shape using a struct and custom property, the intended higher-order shape is always defined and visioned as a tree structure. The custom property is used to define all the leaf nodes while the struct is used to define all the non-leaf nodes.

Note

  • If you use the AWS IoT FleetWise console to create the first vehicle model, you don't need to manually create a signal catalog. When you create your first vehicle model, AWS IoT FleetWise automatically creates a signal catalog for you. For more information, see Create a vehicle model (console).

  • If you use the AWS IoT FleetWise console to create a vehicle model, you can upload .dbc files to import signals. .dbc is a file format that Controller Area Network (CAN bus) databases support. After the vehicle model is created, new signals are automatically added to the signal catalog. For more information, see Create a vehicle model (console).

  • AWS IoT FleetWise currently supports a signal catalog for each AWS account per Region.

AWS IoT FleetWise provides the following API operations that you can use to create and manage signal catalogs.

Tutorials