New preprint mentioning Akida (mainly Gen 1) by three researchers from Edith Cowan University, including Alexander Rassau, who co-authored several papers with Anup Vanarse, Adam Osseiran and Peter van der Made between 2016 - 2020…
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5. Conclusion
SLAM based on event cameras and neuromorphic computing represents an innovative approach to spatial perception and mapping in dynamic environments. Event cameras capture visual information asynchronously, responding immediately to changes in the scene with high temporal resolution. Neuromorphic computing, inspired by the brain's processing principles, has the capacity to efficiently handle this event-based data, enabling real-time, low-power computation.
By combining event cameras and neuromorphic processing, SLAM systems could achieve several advantages, including low latency, low power consumption, robustness to changing lighting conditions, and adaptability to dynamic environments. This integrated approach offers efficient, scalable, and robust solutions for applications such as robotics,
augmented reality, and autonomous vehicles, with the potential to transform spatial perception and navigation capabilities in various domains.
5.1. Summary of Key Findings
VSLAM systems based on traditional image sensors such as monocular, stereo or RGB-D cameras have gained significant development attention in recent decades. These sensors can gather detailed data about the scene and are available at affordable prices. They also have relatively low power requirements, making them feasible for autonomous systems such as self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles and other mobile robots. VSLAM systems employing these sensors have achieved reasonable performance and accuracy but have often struggled in real-world contexts due to high computational demands, limited adaptability to dynamic environments, and susceptibility to motion blur and lighting changes. Moreover, they face difficulties in real-time processing, especially in resource-constrained settings like autonomous drones or mobile robots.
To overcome the drawbacks of these conventional sensors, event cameras have begun to be explored. They have been inspired by the working of biological retinas and attempt to mimic the characteristics of human eyes. This biological design influence for event cameras means they consume minimal power and operate with lower bandwidth in addition to other notable features such as very low latency, high temporal resolution, and wide dynamic range. These attractive features make event cameras highly suitable for robotics, autonomous vehicles, drone navigation, and high-speed tracking applications. However, they operate on a fundamentally different principle compared to traditional cameras; event cameras respond to the brightness changes of the scene and generate events rather than capturing the full frame at a time. This poses challenges as algorithms and approaches employed in conventional image processing and SLAM systems cannot be directly applied and novel methods are required to realize their potential.
For SLAM systems based on event cameras, relevant methods can be selected based on the event representations and the hardware platform being used. Commonly employed methods for event- based SLAM are featured-based, direct, motion-compensated and deep-learning. Feature-based methods can be computationally efficient as they only deal with the small numbers of events produced by the fast-moving cameras for processing. However, their efficacy diminishes while dealing with a texture-less environment. On the other hand, the direct method can achieve robustness in a texture-less environment, but it can only be employed for moderate camera motions. Motion- compensated methods can offer robustness in high-speed motion as well as in large-scale settings, but they can only be employed for rotational camera motions. Deep learning methods can be effectively used to acquire the required attributes of the event data and generate the map while being robust to noise and outliers. However, this requires large amounts of training data, and performance cannot be guaranteed for different environment settings. SNNs have emerged in recent years as alternatives to CNNs and are considered well-suited for data generated by event cameras. The development of practical SNN-based systems is, however, still in the early stages and relevant methods and techniques need considerable further development before they can be implemented in an event camera-based SLAM system.
For conventional SLAM systems, traditional computing platforms usually require additional hardware such as GPU co-processors to perform the heavy computational loads, particularly when deep learning methods are employed. This high computational requirement means power requirements are also high, making them impractical for deployment in mobile autonomous systems. However, neuromorphic event-driven processors utilizing SNNs to model cognitive and interaction capabilities show promise in providing a solution. The research on implementing and integrating these emerging technologies is still in the early stages, however, an additional research effort will be required to realize this potential.
This review has identified that a system based on event cameras and neuromorphic processing presents a promising pathway for enhancing state-of-the-art solutions in SLAM. The unique features of event cameras, such as adaptability to changing lighting conditions, support for high dynamic range and lower power consumption due to the asynchronous nature of event data generation are the driving factors that can help to enhance the performance of the SLAM system. In addition, neuromorphic processors, which are designed to efficiently process and support parallel incoming event streams, can help to minimize the computational cost and increase the efficiency of the system. Such a neuromorphic SLAM system has the possibility of overcoming significant obstacles in autonomous navigation, such as the need for quick and precise perception, while simultaneously reducing problems relating to real-time processing requirements and energy usage. Moreover, if appropriate algorithms and methods can be developed, this technology has the potential to transform the realm of mobile autonomous systems by enhancing their agility, energy efficiency, and ability to function in a variety of complex and unpredictable situations.
5.2. Current State-of-the-Art and Future Scope
During the last few decades, much research has focused on implementing SLAM based on frame-based cameras and laser scanners. Nonetheless, a fully reliable and adaptable solution has yet to be discovered due to the computational complexities and sensor limitations, leading to systems requiring high power consumption and having difficulty adapting to changes in the environment, rendering them impractical for many use cases, particularly for mobile autonomous systems. For this reason, researchers have begun to shift focus to finding alternative or new solutions to address these problems. One promising direction for further exploration was found to be the combination of an event camera and neuromorphic computing technology due to the unique benefits that these complementary approaches can bring to the SLAM problem.
The research to incorporate event cameras and neuromorphic computing technology into a functional SLAM system is, however, currently in the early stages. Given that the algorithms and techniques employed in conventional SLAM approaches are not directly applicable to these emerging technologies, the necessity of finding new algorithms and methods within the neuromorphic computing paradigm is the main challenge faced by researchers. Some promising approaches to applying event cameras to the SLAM problem have been identified in this paper, but future research focus needs to be applied to the problem of utilizing emerging neuromorphic processing capabilities to implement these methods practically and efficiently.
5.3. Neuromorphic SLAM Challenges
Developing SLAM algorithms that effectively utilize event-based data from event cameras and harness the computational capabilities of neuromorphic processors presents a significant challenge. These algorithms must be either heavily modified or newly conceived to fully exploit the strengths of both technologies. Furthermore, integrating data from event cameras with neuromorphic processors and other sensor modalities, such as IMUs or traditional cameras, necessitates the development of new fusion techniques. Managing the diverse data formats, temporal characteristics, and noise profiles from these sensors while maintaining consistency and accuracy throughout the SLAM process will be a complex task.
In terms of scalability, expanding event cameras and neuromorphic processor-based SLAM systems to accommodate large-scale environments with intricate dynamics will pose challenges in computational resource allocation. It is essential to ensure scalability while preserving real-time performance for practical deployment. Additionally, event cameras and neuromorphic processors must adapt to dynamic environments where scene changes occur rapidly. Developing algorithms capable of swiftly updating SLAM estimates based on incoming event data while maintaining robustness and accuracy is critical.
Leveraging the learning capabilities of neuromorphic processors for SLAM tasks, such as map building and localization, necessitates the design of training algorithms and methodologies proficient in learning from event data streams. The development of adaptive learning algorithms capable of enhancing SLAM performance over time in real-world environments presents a significant challenge. Moreover, ensuring the correctness and reliability of event camera and neuromorphic processor- based SLAM systems poses hurdles in verification and validation. Rigorous testing methodologies must also be developed to validate the performance and robustness of these systems. If these challenges can be overcome, the potential rewards are significant, however.
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, S.T., A.R. and D.C.; methodology, S.T.; validation, S.T., A.R. and D.C.; formal analysis, S.T.; investigation, S.T.; writing—original draft preparation, S.T.; writing—review and editing, S.T., A.R. and D.C; supervision, A.R. and D.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.
Acknowledgments: This publication is partially supported by an ECU, School of Engineering Scholarship.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
