Bimodal vision system combining standard camera and dynamic vision sensor for detecting and tracking fast UAVs

This work focuses on a bimodal vision system which was previously demonstrated as a relevant sensing candidate for detecting and tracking fast objects by combining the unique event-based sensor features i.e. high temporal resolution, reduced bandwidth needs, low energy consumption, and passive detection capabilities with the high-spatial resolution of a RGB camera. In this study, we aim to propose a model based on the principle of attentional vision for real-time detection and tracking of UAVs, taking into account computing and on-board resource constraints. A laboratory demonstrator have been proposed to evaluate the operational limits in terms of computation time, system performances (including target detection) versus speed. Our first indoor and outdoor tests revealed the interest and potential of our system to quickly detect objects flying at hundreds of kilometers an hour.