Page 92 - ENGINEERING REVIEW APRIL 2022 DIGITAL MAGAZINE

TECH INNOVATION
#THERMAL IMAGING

Teledyne FLIR releases free expanded

starter thermal dataset for ADAS and

autonomous vehicle testing

jore images and label categories offer improved model performance for automotive safety system
testing and development

that thermal sensors are uniquely
capable of seeing pedestrians, large
animals, and other vulnerable road
users in conditions where current
automatic emergency braking (AEB)
systems are challenged, including
win total darkness, most fog, smoke,
shadows, inclement weather, and sun
or headlight glare.
In an ongoing effort to make roads
safer, twenty automakers committed
to the U.S. Congress that all newly
manufactured cars and trucks will
be equipped with AEB systems by
September 1,2022. Furthermore, high-
profile testing and demonstrations from
eledyne FLIR today announced and thermal sensors, such as the FLIR leading organizations including AAA,
the release of an expanded free ADK™. demonstrate the need for more effective
Tthermal dataset for Advanced “The industry-first free thermal and intelligent systems to improve
Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) dataset has been used by developers vehicle safety, especially in challenging
and self-driving vehicle researchers and as a tool in academic research to conditions where thermal cameras
and developers. The expanded starter explore safety of automated driving excel. With the potential for millions
dataset nearly doubles the original, technology with thermal imaging,” said of thermal-enabled AEB on vehicles,
industry-first free dataset and features Chris Posch, director of automotive Teledyne FLIR anticipates the cost of its
more than 26,000 annotated images engineering at Teledyne FLIR. “The thermal sensor to continue to decrease
from the US, England, and France in day expanded dataset, with more images significantly, which will encourage
and nighttime conditions. It also triples and categories, will further enhance wide-scale adoption and ultimately
the number of categories and now detection and classifications models, enable safer vehicles and roads.
includes person, bike, car, motorcycle, especially focused on automatic braking
bus, train, truck, traffic light, fire capabilities as part of a multispectral,
hydrant, street sign, dog, skateboard, sensor-fused system.
stroller scooter, and other vehicle labels. ”When combined with visible light
The expanded free starter thermal cameras, LIDAR, and radar, thermal
imaging dataset allows the automotive sensors help create a comprehensive
and academic community to quickly and redundant system to identify and
evaluate the vehicle safety algorithm classify roadway objects using sensor For more information
performance, neural network testing, fusion data. Testing has demonstrated Website: www.flir.com/adas.

90 | APRIL 2022