Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ULPEC (Ultra-Low Power Event-Based Camera)

Teaser

The long term goal of ULPEC is to develop advanced vision applications with ultra-low power requirements and ultra-low latency.The output of the ULPEC project is a demonstrator connecting a neuromorphic event-based camera to a high speed ultra-low power consumption...

Summary

The long term goal of ULPEC is to develop advanced vision applications with ultra-low power requirements and ultra-low latency.
The output of the ULPEC project is a demonstrator connecting a neuromorphic event-based camera to a high speed ultra-low power consumption asynchronous visual data processing system (Spiking Neural Network with memristive synapses). Although ULPEC device aims to reach TRL 4, it is a highly application-oriented project: prospective use cases will be studied and an application roadmap will be developed, by considering interoperability for an integration in “systems of systems” as well as the definition of upper power consumption limits depending on future application.
The project consortium therefore includes an industrial end-user, which will more particularly investigate autonomous and computer assisted driving. Autonomous and computer assisted driving are indeed a major disruption in the transport and car manufacturing sector. Vision and recognition of traffic event must be computed with very low latency (to improve security) and low power (to accommodate the power limited environment in a car, such as power budget and heat dissipation).

Work performed

The work is roughly split into three research groups: memristive devices, CMOS design and system architecture, and industrial use of the ULPEC’s technology.
All partners have strongly been involved in the project. The collaboration through regular face to face meetings and conference calls allowed to share important information for a current multidisciplinary project. Moreover, all reports have been delivered on time.
After this second period, we have issued several publications, one of which focusing on the opportunities and challenges of spiking neurons that are the primitive of the ULPEC project.

Final results

The first one concerns the availability of new generations of miniaturized smart systems with significant improvements in performance: i) size, cost and affordability; ii) reliability and robustness; iii) low power consumption and energy autonomy; and iv) user acceptability.
Progress made on the scientific work packages shows that we are still right on course for the whole system size. However, it is currently too early to provide formal conclusions as to the reliability and power consumption-related objective.
The second expected impact concerns economics aspects.
Industrial partners have identified high potential applications (3 patents). It makes us confident in the fact that ULPEC would reach this expected impact.
The third addressed impact concerns the provision of innovative solutions for addressing societal needs and expectations in particular for the health and well-being, safety and security and environment.
Work package 6 for exploitation has already identified potential use cases for ULPEC technology (confidential deliverable D6.1). Currently, this work package follows all scientific progress made in the context of ULPEC and will provide conclusions by producing a new version of this deliverable at M48.

Website & more info

More info: https://ulpecproject.eu.