Introduction
===================



.. admonition:: Backgroud & Mission

   The Fusion-Oriented Open-Access Data Platform (FOOD) represents a strategic initiative by `ISIF`_ and `CSIF`_ to advance the field of autonomous systems. Developed by the `Smart Sensor Fusion Laboratory`_. The primary mission of FOOD is to construct a foundational data infrastructure explicitly designed for multi-source information fusion. It aims to resolve the scarcity of high-quality, synchronized, and structurally aligned data required for advanced autonomous systems.


.. admonition:: Key Characteristics 

   To support the evolution of next-generation intelligent agents, FOOD provides a robust verification platform with full-spectrum coverage:

   * **Unified Data Representation**: Distinct from traditional datasets that maintain isolated data sturcture for different sensors, FOOD abstracts heterogeneous sensor data into a standardized, fusion-oriented representation. This architectural design breaks down the barriers between modalities, significantly reducing the complexity of multi-source alignment and processing.

   * **Sensor-Agnostic Adaptability**: Thanks to this unified design, the dataset possesses inherent universality. It is capable of adapting to virtually all sensor types (Lidar, Radar, Camera, etc.) within a consistent framework. This allows researchers to focus on algorithm design rather than data parsing and format conversion.

   * **Methodological Inclusivity**: The unified architecture naturally facilitates fusion across all layers. By standardizing data at the fundamental level, FOOD supports multi-level fusion algorithms more efficiently and intuitively than datasets relying on loose coupling of raw data.

.. .. admonition:: Goals

..    The SDC project serves the following purposes:
   
..    #. Description of the setup of sensors, equipment, data center and code repositories;
   #. Establishment of proper data sets to support researchers at SJTU;
   #. Design of systematic use cases for algorithm test/component verification and validation;
   #. Facilitation of our research on fusion and related metrices framework topics.



.. admonition:: System Architecture

   .. _figPCHistory:
   .. figure:: figures/figBluePrint.jpg
       :align: center
       :alt: System Architecture of Smart Data Center

   
.. admonition:: Latest Work

   .. raw:: html

         <div style="text-align: center;">
            <video width="600" controls>
               <source src="_static/videos/mc_visualizer_1min.mp4" type="video/mp4">
               Your browser does not support the video tag.
            </video>
            <div style="text-align: center;">
            Fig. 02: The Visualizer of FOOD
         </div>

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.. _Smart Sensor Fusion Laboratory: https://fusion.sjtu.edu.cn
.. _Shanghai Jiao Tong University: https://www.sjtu.edu.cn

.. _ISIF: https://isif.org
.. _CSIF: https://www.csif.org.cn
.. _Fusion-Oriented Open-Access Data Platform (FOOD): https://sdcsjtu.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html