SBIR Phase II: Three Dimensional Monocular Thermal Ranging Camera

SBIR二期：三维单目热测距相机

• 批准号: 2128439
• 负责人: Eugene Petilli
• 金额: $ 99.83万
• 依托单位: OWL AUTONOMOUS IMAGING INC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2128439&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Three; Dimensional

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to improve the safe operation of Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) equipped vehicles and robotic mobility machinery while helping overcome the sensing challenges that have delayed autonomous vehicle (AV) adoption and acceptance. Degraded Visual Environments (DVE) such as solar glare, darkness, smoke, and dust impact the safety of vehicle occupants, as well as those external to the vehicle, especially pedestrians and cyclists. The new sensor modality of the 3D monocular thermal technology developed as part of this project may improve the safe operation of on-road and off-road vehicles alike. The system seeks to detect and locate pedestrians, cyclists and objects in all conditions, improving vehicle automated braking, obstacle avoidance, localization, and navigation. Beyond improving safety, the new 3D monocular thermal modality devise will improve the utility and commercial value of vehicles and robotic machines by extending the operating range to include the most challenging environmental conditions.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a new sensor modality that addresses the shortcomings of camera, radar and LiDAR sensors used in current automotive and robotic mobility applications. This project seeks to develop the simple, yet powerful innovation of thermal monocular ranging where a single thermal camera produces 2D video detail concurrent with a range map or point cloud of much higher spatio-temporal density than contemporary sensors. Drawing inspiration from monocular convolutional neural network (CNN) ranging work recently published in the visible domain, this project creates a new field of monocular 3D thermal imaging. Unlike visible-based CNN systems that rely on color information and reflected light, this project will construct from first principles new thermal networks and ground truth sets to train the CNN. The extreme price pressures of the automotive market can only be met through adoption of a new thermal detector technology. This project further develops new thin-film detector technology and the detector to readout interconnect application process with potential breakthroughs in thermal camera performance, utility, and affordability.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项是根据2021年《美国救援计划法》（公法117-2）全部或部分资助的。这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）II期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是改善高级驾驶员辅助系统（ADAS）配备的车辆和机器人移动机械的安全操作，同时帮助克服延迟自动驾驶汽车（AV）采用和接受的感应挑战。降解的视觉环境（DVE），例如太阳眩光，黑暗，烟雾和灰尘影响了车辆乘员以及车辆外部的安全性，尤其是行人和骑自行车的人的安全。作为该项目的一部分开发的3D单眼热技术的新传感器方式可能会改善公路和越野车的安全操作。 该系统试图在各种情况下检测和找到行人，骑自行车的人和物体，改善车辆自动制动，避免障碍，定位和导航。除了提高安全性外，新的3D单眼热模式设计还可以通过扩展操作范围来提高车辆和机器人机器的商业价值，从而包括最具挑战性的环境状况。这是小型企业创新研究（SBIR）II期项目将开发出一种新的传感器方式，以解决相机，Radar和Lidar Asportiation Aubitive Aubitive and Aubotic and obotic and obotic and obotic and obotic and obotive and obotive and obotive and obotive and obotive and obotive and obotive and aubotive and obotive and robotive and aubotive。该项目旨在开发热单面范围的简单而强大的创新，其中单个热摄像机与当代传感器相比，单个热摄像机与范围映射或点云同时发生的范围映射或点云同时发生。该项目从最近在可见域上发表的单眼卷积神经网络（CNN）范围绘制灵感，该项目创建了一个单眼3D热成像的新领域。与依赖颜色信息和反射光的基于可见的CNN系统不同，该项目将从第一原理构建新的热网络和地面真相集来训练CNN。只有通过采用新的热探测器技术，才能满足汽车市场的极端价格压力。该项目进一步开发了新的薄膜检测器技术和探测器，以读取互连应用程序，并在热摄像机性能，公用事业和可负担性方面的潜在突破。这项奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估来获得支持的。