Assessments to Prepare and De-Risk Technology

Transcript:Assessments to Prepare and De-Risk Technology:
Assessments to Prepare and De-Risk Technology Developments – Intelligent Space Camera Contractor(s): Ubotica (IE) GSTP Element 1 De-risk ESA Budget: 145 k€ Background and justification: The recent advent of on-board AI implemented with COTS devices has enabled a push of intelligence to the satellite, processing data at source, but this has not yet extended to the domains of Visual Monitoring Cameras (VMCs) Previous developments (e.g., as demonstrated in the PhiSat missions) have shown that low-power, high-performance AI compute is achievable and applicable using the Myriad family of Vision Processing units, which have previously undergone radiation characterization in collaboration with ESA Current VMC and launch vehicle camera systems tend to be ‘data gatherers’ rather than intelligence gatherers – where the former is a process of visual data acquisition from a camera, followed by storage and/or transmission. This leads to the acquisition of significant amounts of 2D data that may ultimately only be of sporadic value This activity addresses the lack of intelligence in current VMC and launch cameras by adding efficient AI compute, along with hardware-accelerated stream processing, as part of a new intelligent camera designed for space Objective(s): To develop an Intelligent Space Camera that integrates state-of-the-art image quality with real-time Artificial Intelligence (AI) analysis of a video stream, using COTS technology To build and test the Intelligent Space Camera hardware and software via a full prototype To demonstrate an example use case using the Intelligent Space Camera To verify the feasibility of the Myriad X for use in a compact form factor design in order to de-risk a follow-on full camera development activity Achievements and status: Hardware design of compact form-factor camera completed Multi-stack camera hardware solution manufactured and functional and electrical bringup completed Software developed to enable RTSP streaming, ISP, H.265 compression, text overlay, Ethernet C&C, and user configuration via CURL Demonstration application developed to execute on the hardware Demonstration of streaming AI ongoing Benefits: The added value of this technology for the targeted application (ESA mission, commercial application, etc.). Small form-factor camera solution, operating in low power (~<10W) envelope and with Ethernet connectivity, can be easily deployed on many missions from CubeSats to larger satellites and launchers The H.265 hardware accelerated compression, along with fully software programmable on-board processing, provides a flexible solution that can be adapted to VMC and launch camera applications Command and control over Ethernet, facilitated via an on-camera HTTP server, enables control and