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Foveal Extra-vehicular Activity Helper-Retriever

Award Information

Agency:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 		Branch:
N/A 		Award ID:
22706 		Program Year/Program:
1995 / SBIR
Agency Tracking Number:
22706 		Solicitation Year:
N/A 		Solicitation Topic Code:
N/A 		Solicitation Number:
N/A
Small Business Information
AMHERST SYSTEMS, INC.
30 Wilson Road Buffalo, NY 14221
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Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
 
Phase 2
Fiscal Year: 1995
Title: Foveal Extra-vehicular Activity Helper-Retriever
Agency: NASA
Contract: N/A
Award Amount: $599,919.00
 

Abstract:

A key robot visual system resource is acuity, and yet this is fixed in conventional uniform acuity machine vision; regions with little or no relevance to the robot's mission are sampled at the same resolution as key features, occupying valuable signal bandwidth and computational resources, and increasing system latencies. Foveal active vision features imaging sensors and signal processing with graded acuity, and context sensitive sensor gaze control, analogous to that prevalent throughout vertebrate vision. Foveal systems operate more efficiently because resolution is treated as a dynamically allocatable resource. Wide field-of-view, localized high acuity, and fast frame rates are achieved while minimizing irrelevant sensor data. The maturation of foveal technology is hampered by the need for fast and intelligent gaze control. This program will prototype a mobile robot foveal vision system which relies on an agent based grounded layered architecture with integrated reasoning for gaze control. This architecture will facilitate the development of successful active vision behaviors (sensor pointing and platform motion) required for operation in a "dynamic space environment". Learning techniques will be investigated which accelerate attentive active vision behaviors by evolving them into preattentive responses.

Principal Investigator:

Cesar Bandera
7166310610

Business Contact:

Small Business Information at Submission:

Amherst Systems, Inc.
30 Wilson Road Buffalo, NY 14221

EIN/Tax ID:
DUNS: N/A
Number of Employees: N/A
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No