Glossary

Definitions of terms used throughout the Avala documentation.

A

A secret token used to authenticate requests to the Avala API. API keys can be scoped to limit permissions.

A named stream of messages within a dataset. Each channel has a topic name and a schema defining the message format.

In MCAP files, a compressed block of messages. Chunks enable efficient random access and parallel processing.

The fundamental unit of organization in Avala. A dataset contains sensor data from a single recording session, along with metadata and annotations.

The process of uploading data to Avala, including validation, indexing, and processing.

The timestamp when a message was recorded, typically from the system clock at recording time.

An open-source container file format for multimodal log data. MCAP supports multiple serialization formats and provides efficient random access.

A single data record within a channel, containing serialized sensor data and timestamps.

Avala’s web-based platform for managing, visualizing, and collaborating on autonomous vehicle data.

An automated workflow for ingesting data from external sources into Avala.

Protocol Buffers, a language-neutral serialization format developed by Google. One of several message encodings supported by MCAP.

The original timestamp when a message was published by its source, which may differ from log time.

A file format for storing ROS (Robot Operating System) message data. Avala supports both ROS 1 and ROS 2 bag formats.

A definition of a message structure. Schemas can be defined using ROS message definitions, Protobuf, JSON Schema, or other formats.

A named endpoint for publishing or subscribing to messages. In Avala, topics are represented as channel names (e.g., /camera/front).

A unique identifier for an autonomous vehicle in your fleet. Datasets can be associated with specific vehicles for organization and analysis.