Neuromorphic Configurable Architecture for Robust Motion Estimation

Abstract

The robustness of the human visual system recovering motion estimation in almost any visual situation is enviable, performing enormous calculation tasks continuously, robustly, efficiently, and effortlessly. There is obviously a great deal we can learn from our own visual system. Currently, there are several optical flow algorithms, although none of them deals efficiently with noise, illumination changes, second-order motion, occlusions, and so on. The main contribution of this work is the efficient implementation of a biologically inspired motion algorithm that borrows nature templates as inspiration in the design of architectures and makes use of a specific model of human visual motion perception: Multichannel Gradient Model (McGM). This novel customizable architecture of a neuromorphic robust optical flow can be constructed with FPGA or ASIC device using properties of the cortical motion pathway, constituting a useful framework for building future complex bioinspired systems running in real time with high computational complexity. This work includes the resource usage and performance data, and the comparison with actual systems. This hardware has many application fields like object recognition, navigation, or tracking in difficult environments due to its bioinspired and robustness properties.