Bringing intelligent 3D perception to automated machines

1 min read

Deep tech 3D perception platform start-up CronAI has partnered with Ouster, a supplier of digital lidar technology, to support Ouster’s current spinning lidar sensors and next-generation solid-state lidar.

CronAI’s senseEDGE platform is a self-optimising, 3D data, deep learning edge inference perception processing platform, that enables innovators to develop intelligent solutions using 3D sensors to accurately perceive the real world.

The partnership will provide Ouster’s partners and customers with early access to CronAI’s perception platform, enabling their teams to bridge the gap between complex 3D sensor data perception algorithms and real world applications on the product edge.

“This partnership is significant, representing collaboration between a leader in lidar sensor technologies and an AI Software & Hardware platform for 3D Perception,” said Tushar Chhabra, co-founder and CEO at CronAI. “Our heterogeneous software platform is specifically designed for processing 3D sensor data and for computer vision, and through our work together, Ouster can focus on building quality sensor technologies while their customers can significantly mitigate their investment risks. We’ve architected our platform to leverage the features of FPGAs supporting sequential, parallel and mixed workloads at lower precisions. That all adds up to improvement in throughput, lower latency and reduced power consumption. Now innovators can develop solutions using 3D sensors without the performance bottlenecks of traditional GPU compute hardware.”

Commenting Clement Kong, General Manager, APAC at Ouster added: “A 3D perception platform with edge processing will help customers accelerate their projects and unlock the perception capabilities of high-resolution digital lidar. CronAI’s platform can help us reshape the autonomous world, unlocking the potential of smart spaces, transforming the way we secure critical infrastructure and enabling new levels of industrial automation.”

By accelerating algorithms and neural networks on the product edge, Ouster can help customers to rapidly innovate and achieve higher performance per watt, performance and throughput per TOP. The partnership with CronAI aims to overcome the traditional software and processing bottlenecks that customers have faced when building applications and solutions with 3D sensors.

CronAI recently opened its early access program to partners and commenced porting of customers’ or third-party perception software. It is now accepting pre-orders for development kits to ship in early 2021.