Efficient On-board Remote Sensing Scene Classification Using FPGA With Ternary Weight

Remote Sensing Scene Classification (RSSC) is essential for applications such as environmental monitoring and catastrophe management, which often have stringent time constraints requiring real-time processing. On-board processing significantly enhances real-time performance but is challenged by limited computational resources and strict power requirements. To address these challenges, this study proposes an FPGA-based accelerator designed for Ternary Weight Networks (TWNs), which use ternary values {+1, 0, -1} for weights. By adopting TWNs, the multiplication operations in convolution are eliminated, resulting in a significant reduction in computing and power needs. Experimental results show that TWNs significantly reduce network parameters while retaining classification accuracy comparable to Full-precision Weight Networks (FPWNs). The FPGA-based accelerator achieves an energy-efficiency ratio of 434.11 GOP/W, outperforming most existing CNN accelerators, hence meeting the requirements for on-board RSSC.