The first satellite on board is already in orbit

Surely very few people have learned, but almost two months ago the first satellite with artificial intelligence on board was launched.

On September 2, an experimental satellite was launched to the size of a cereal box from the rocket dispenser, along with another 45 satellites of similar size.The first satellite with artificial intelligence (AI) that was thrown into space, called Phisat-1, now rises to more than 27.500 km/h in a synchronous orbit in the sun, about 530 km high.

The phisat-1 has a thermal and hyperspecting chamber, as well as with on-board processing thanks to the Vision Processing Unit (VPU).They have many smart cameras and even some 99 dollars.The phisat-1 is, in fact, one of the satellites found in a mission to monitor polar ice and soil humidity, while trying the communication systems between satellites to create a future federated satellite network.

Problem to solve

The first problem that Myriad 2 is helping to solve is how to manage the huge amount of data generated by high-fidelity cameras such as Phisat-1.“The ability of sensors to produce data increases by 100 in each generation;However, our ability to download them increases, but only for three, four or five in each generation, ”says Gianluca Furano, Data Systems and Onboard Computing Lead in the European Space Agency (that for its acronym in English), which directed the projectof collaboration in Phisat-1.

Approximately two thirds of the surface of our planet is continuously covered with clouds.For this reason, usually, many images of clouds are not used and that are stored, sent to the Earth through an important descent bandwidth, saved again and reviewed by a scientist or an algorithm on a computer hoursor days later, so that, finally, they have to be eliminated."And the AI came to rescue us, like the cavalry in a west movie," says Furano.The idea that the team presented was to use on board processing to identify and discard cloud images, thus saving about 30% bandwidth.

Computer capacity

"The space is the avant-garde," says Aubrey Dunne, Chief Technology officer of Ubotica, Irish Startup that built and tested the AI of the Phisat-1's in collaboration with Cosine, manufacturer of the camera, the University of Pisa and Synergise to develop the solutioncomplete.“Myriad was completely designed from the beginning to have an imposing computing capacity, but to a very low power.This completely adapts to the needs of spatial applications ”.

However, Myriad 2 at first was not destined for orbit.In general, the computers of the spacecraft use very specialized chips "hardened by radiation" that can be "up to two decades behind the avant -garde commercial technology," explains Dunne;And, at that time, the AI was not part of the equation.For this reason, Dunne and the Ubotica team made the "radiation characterization", testing the Myriad chip through a test series to find out how to handle any error or deterioration that could arise.

Radiation chip

ESE had never tried a chip with this complexity of radiation, and the project promoters doubted whether they would be able to perform their tests correctly, to the point of having to prepare the manual on how to perform an exhaustive test and the characterizationof this chip.The first test, which were 36 hours in a row of radiation rays in CERN at the end of 2018 “was a situation of great pressure,” says Dunne.However, that test and its two follow -ups "Luckily they went well".Finally, Myriad 2 passed the test in its standard form, without the need for modifications.

After the success of the test, this low -performance computer vision chip was ready to venture beyond the Earth's atmosphere.However, another challenge arrived.Normally, the algorithms of AI are built or "train" using large amounts of data to "learn", in this case, what is a cloud and what is not.But since the camera was so new there was no data, so an application with synthetic data extracted from existing missions had to be prepared.

More than a year of waiting

All this integration, and the systems and software tests, with the involvement of half a dozen different organizations in Europe, required four months to complete.Unfortunately, a series of foreign events-delays with the rocket, the coronavirus pandemic and unavaged summer winds-made the teams have to wait more than a year to know if PHISAT-1 would work in the orbit in the expected way.

The launch of September 2 from the French Guiana was rapid and impeccable.For the initial verification, the satellite kept all the captured images and recorded each of its artificial intelligence decisions regarding cloud detection, so that the equipment on land could verify that its implanted brain behaved as expected as expected.After three weeks of uncertainty, Pastena was able to proclaim that they had become part of the "space of space".ESA announced that the team was "happy to be able to present for the first time images of the earth from a satellite in orbit obtained thanks to the early inference of the accelerated by hardware".

Useful pixels

Just sending useful pixels, the satellite will improve the use of bandwidth and significantly reduce the additional expenses of descent, not to mention the time savings of scientists on land.In the future, the uses of low -cost Teensy satellites will be unenforceable, especially if the possibility of executing multiple applications in them is added.

When flies on forest fire -prone areas, a satellite is able to detect fires and notify local response equipment in minutes in place of hours.In the case of oceans, which are normally ignored, a satellite can detect illegal ships or environmental accidents.In forests and farms, a satellite is able to detect soil moisture and crop growth.On ice, you can track thickness and thaw to help monitor climate change.Many of these possibilities will be proven very soon: ESA and Ubotica are working together at the Phisat-2, which will bring another Myriad 2 to orbit.Phisat-2 will be "capable of executing artificial intelligence applications that can be developed, easily installed, validated and operated from the spacecraft during your flight using a simple user interface".

#Artificial Intelligence #TECHNOLOGICAL AVANCES #FUTURE #INNOVATION #Inteligencia

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Juan Carlos f.Galindo

After two decades dedicated to the communication of products and services, innovation ,, R&D, television and sponsorships of a great company, I embark on this blog that I will dedicate to my passion, the technological tendency that will star in the 4th Industrial Revolution:Artificial intelligence.