Thales Alenia Space: Artificial intelligence on-board observation satellites : use-cases, in-orbit results and perspectives
The CIAR project (Chaine Image Autonome et Réactive / Reactive and Autonomous Imaging Chain) conducted at IRT Saint Exupéry aims to study the deployment of AI algorithms for image processing on embedded targets. In 2021, we were the first team to ever deploy and successfully run a Neural Network on a FPGA in-orbit. This result has been presented during ISPRS 2021, and this year, we will focus on another use case : the detection and classification of ships from space (architectures used, performances before and after hardware deployment)