ALFA

The primary aim of the project is to create a compact, light and low-power vision system that may be used as autonomous visual recognition and navigation system of unmanned aerial vehicles. In order to make long term navigational decisions the system has to evaluate the captured visual information without any external assistance. Its construction fuses engineering considerations with biological findings to create the tightest link possible between architecture and function. A specialty of the system is that it facilitates the integration of external infrared and low-light sensors to enable visual recognition and navigation even under difficult viewing conditions (e.g. fog, dust, twilight). The functionality of the vision system will be presented on light models of aerial vehicles, demonstrating the recognition of terrain features, surface morphologies, terrain and moving objects, or changing environment conditions. The civil use of the system is primarily in flood and fire defense, vegetation classification, large area security surveillance and traffic monitoring, since effective and economic solution to these problems is not possible using current technologies.