Augment it Maybe?: Improving Deep Vision Models with Adversarial Scene Text Augmentation

Image data augmentation has been regarded as a reliable and effective way to increase the data available for training. With the advent and rise of Generative AI, generative data augmentation has been shown to realize even better gains in performance for downstream tasks. However, these performance gains are often the cause of "extra information"...

Autonomous Navigation around Asteroids using Convolutional Neural Networks

Missions to small bodies are increasingly gaining interest as they might hold the secrets to our solar system’s origin while some are also posing a threat to life on Earth. The small size and irregular shape result in complex dynamics complicating the close-proximity operations. Furthermore, due to the long round-trip time communication delays...

Exploration of Deep Learning-based Computer Vision for the detection of floating plastic debris in waterways

Plastic pollution is one of the most challenging global environmental problems. Currently, more than 1000 rivers transport approximately 80% of the plastic influx into the oceans. Naturally, more and more companies are interested in tackling this problem. One of them is Noria Sustainable Innovators, a company based in Delft (Netherlands). It is...

Robust Navigation Framework for Proximity Operations around Uncooperative Spacecraft: A monocular vision-based navigation approach using deep learning

Autonomous vision-based navigation is a crucial element for space applications involving a potentially uncooperative target, such as proximity operations for on-orbit servicing or active debris removal. Due to low mass and power characteristics, monocular vision sensors are an attractive choice for onboard vision-based navigation systems. This...

Weight Swapping: A new method for Supervised Domain Adaptation in Computer Vision using Discrete Optimization

Training Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models is difficult when there is a lack of labeled training data and no unlabeled data is available. A popular method for this is domain adaptation where the weights of a pre-trained CNN model are transferred to the problem setup. The model is pre-trained on the same task but in a different domain...