Onboard image processing

Overview of onboard image processing

Klepsydra SDK for onboard image processing

Klepsydra SDK is a high performance onboard image processing software toolkit. It has the following features:

• Platform independent and lightweight.
• Easy to use and integrated with Matlab, NVIDIA, OpenCV, Linux RTOS and ROS.
• Add-ons for robotics, aerospace, space and rapid development.

The benefits of image processing with Klepsydra

• Blazingly fast data processing – up to 40% performance increase.
• Large increase in stability and scalability.
• Complex problems become notable easier to solve.
• Reduce development time up to 50%.

Image processing applications

Autonomous embedded systems with the following requirements:

• Edge data processing with limited computational resources.
• Systems that need to process large and/or high rate sensor data.
• Complex algorithms to be performed onboard.
• Examples of these systems are:
  • Vision based navigation:
  • Mission critical robotics or UAVs
• Space rendezvous or planetary landing
• Defence drones and robotics
• UAV or robotics swarms.
• Sensor data fusion for self-driving cars, robotics, UAVs and Spacecrafts.
• Surveillance drones or rovers.

EXAMPLE USE CASE

The problem

Our client, a drone company, performs windmill inspection using autonomous drones. They wanted to do the best possible inspections, and reduce the downtime of windmills to the minimum.

Requirements:

• Capture, video-stream, process and record high resolution images at 20 frames per second. All this onboard.
• Fly as fast and close as possible to the blades of the windmill and do it very robustly.
  Visual navigation based on images, IMU, Camera, GPS and LiDAR.

Situation before using Klepsydra:

• Only low resolution images and low FPS.
• Error prompt and slow and inaccurate navigation.

The solution

We first tackled the image processing issue. By using our sensor multiplexer data processing API we manage not only to achieve the goal of HD images and 20 FPS, but also we managed to reduce the CPU consumption and make the application scalable and stable.

Figure Data multiplexer example.

Use of Klepsydra high performance data multiplexer to share camera imagery for multiple purposes: Recording, vision navigation and video streaming to ground control.