DARPA envisages smarter sensors with FENCE Phase 2 awards
An event-based camera produces a smaller amount of data than a standard imager. (Photo: WSU)
Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are working on a DARPA programme to create neuromorphic IR camera technologies.
DARPA has selected two companies to continue work on a programme to produce new event-based IR camera technologies that would transmit only essential data in cluttered visual environments.
Raytheon and Northrop Grumman each received contracts for Phase 2 of the Fast Event-based Neuromorphic Camera and Electronics (FENCE) programme, with $16.27 million and $8.71 million awards respectively.
DARPA expects each company to complete the work by June 2024.
In July 2021, DARPA selected Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems to lead teams on Phase 1 of FENCE.
The US defence R&D agency hopes the end result will be an event-based IR focal plane array plus a new class of digital signal processing and learning algorithms to handle dynamic scenes.
Because the solution would only transmit images when pixels change, it would produce significantly less data and operate with much less latency and power consumption than existing imaging systems in use with the US military.
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