Kinematics
Working Group
About the Group
Interim Lead
Rick Wietfeldt, Qualcomm Incorporated
Participation
MIPI Alliance members at the Contributor level and above may participate by subscribing to the group on the member website.
Details
Charter
The Kinematics Working Group was established in June 2026 to support existing markets for kinematic sensors, including radar/lidar, and to explore the 6G ISAC (integrated sensing and communications) use case as a specific radar application. The group also plans to develop a Conformance Test Suite and/or C-Model, create supporting documents such as white papers and FAQs, and contribute to industry education.
Focus
The Kinematic Working Group will assume development of a Kinematic Streaming Format (KSF) specification for the data representation and transport of raw/unprocessed kinematic sensor data over MIPI CSI-2® and MIPI-authorized SerDes/PHYs. For its initial (v1.0) specification, the group will work with the Camera and Security working groups, as well as explore alignment on industry use of MIPI KSF and CSI-2. In subsequent versions, the group will work with other working groups, such as I3C and RFFE, and possibly engage in 6G activities with other industry organizations.
Industry Need
Due to the lack of standard data representation and transport of kinematic sensor chirp data in raw/processed modes over MIPI CSI-2 interfaces, members recognized the need for specification development to support existing radar/lidar markets and to explore applicability in emerging use cases.
Use cases include:
- Sensor types: radar, lidar, ultrasonic, emerging 6G ISAC
- Industries: automotive, robotics, industrial, consumer IOT/edge, cellular
- Technologies (sensor waveforms): FMCW, OFDM, ToF, Flash SPAD, related
- Use case examples: automotive, humanoid robots, industrial controls
- MIPI Interfaces: CSI-2®, CCI™, potentially I3C®, RFFE™
A key motivator for this work is to encourage the automotive industry’s evolution to the centralized processing of kinematic "edge sensors" to reduce system cost and mitigate edge device constraints such as power consumption and heat dissipation. Other markets will also benefit from these advantages.