FPGA-Accelerated Neuromorphic Vision System for Real-Time Orbital Object Detection

2026-06-17

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenge of real-time monitoring in increasingly congested orbital space by proposing an open-source neuromorphic vision system that, for the first time, integrates a grid-based clustering algorithm into an FPGA-accelerated event camera architecture. Leveraging an event-driven camera and a customized hardware-software co-design, the system achieves low-power, deterministic-latency spatial quantization on the FPGA and performs efficient clustering on the client side. Evaluated on the EVAS night-sky dataset, the system attains a 97% on-orbit object detection accuracy with only 8.5 W power consumption and end-to-end processing latency under 62 ms, substantially enhancing the real-time performance and energy efficiency of space situational awareness.

Abstract

The escalating congestion in orbital space demands advanced monitoring solutions. This work presents a comprehensive open-source framework for neuromorphic resident space object (RSO) detection, adapting the foundational grid clustering algorithm for FPGA acceleration. The system integrates a single event-based camera (EBC) with a custom, distributed processing architecture, where rapid spatial quantization is executed in programmable logic (FPGA) and cluster formation is managed by a software client. We validate this architecture through systematic sampling of night-sky observations from the EVAS dataset, demonstrating 97% detection accuracy for RSOs. The implementation, which serves as a foundational toolkit for event-based FPGA processing, achieves efficient throughput with a total power consumption of 8.5 W and deterministic processing latencies below 62 ms. The architecture's energy efficiency and high-precision detection position it as a viable solution for distributed space surveillance networks.

Problem

• orbital object detection
• space surveillance
• real-time monitoring
• resident space object (RSO)
• neuromorphic vision

Innovation

• FPGA acceleration
• neuromorphic vision
• event-based camera
• real-time detection
• space surveillance