Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (36)
- Conference Proceeding (30)
- Article trade magazine (3)
- Book (2)
- Doctoral Thesis (2)
- Preprint (2)
- Part of a Book (1)
- Diploma Thesis (1)
- Patent (1)
Has Fulltext
- no (78) (remove)
Keywords
- Artificial Intelligence (3)
- DEAL (2)
- DFG Publikationskosten (2)
- HSD Publikationsfonds (2)
- Machine Learning (2)
- ADAS (1)
- AI performance metrics (1)
- Computers and Society (1)
- DOAJ (1)
- Data Structures and Algorithms (1)
Department/institution
- Fachbereich - Elektro- & Informationstechnik (78) (remove)
Camera-based object detection is widely used in safety-critical applications such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle research. Road infrastructure has been designed for human vision, so computer vision, with RGB cameras, is a vital source of semantic information from the environment. Sensors, such as LIDAR and RADAR, are also often utilized for these applications; however, cameras provide a higher spatial resolution and color information. The spatial frequency response (SFR), or sharpness of a camera, utilized in object detection systems must be sufficient to allow a detection algorithm to localize objects in the environment over its lifetime reliably. This study explores the relationship between object detection performance and SFR. Six state-of-the-art object detection models are evaluated with varying levels of lens defocus. A novel raw image dataset is created and utilized, containing pedestrians and cars over a range of distances up to 100-m from the sensor. Object detection performance for each defocused dataset is analyzed over a range of distances to determine the minimum SFR necessary in each case. Results show that the relationship between object detection performance and lens blur is much more complex than previous studies have found due to lens field curvature, chromatic aberration, and astigmatisms. We have found that smaller objects are disproportionately impacted by lens blur, and different object detection models have differing levels of robustness to lens blur
The importance of high data quality is increasing with the growing impact and distribution of ML systems and big data. Also, the planned AI Act from the European commission defines challenging legal requirements for data quality especially for the market introduction of safety relevant ML systems. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach that supports the data quality assurance process of multiple data quality aspects. This approach enables the verification of quantitative data quality requirements. The concept and benefits are introduced and explained on small example data sets. How the method is applied is demonstrated on the well-known MNIST data set based an handwritten digits.
With the increasing capabilities of machine learning systems and their potential use in safety-critical systems, ensuring high-quality data is becoming increasingly important. In this paper, we present a novel approach for the assurance of data quality. For this purpose, the mathematical basics are first discussed and the approach is presented using multiple examples. This results in the detection of data points with potentially harmful properties for the use in safety-critical systems.
Beschrieben wird eine optoelektronische Sensoreinrichtung für ein Kraftfahrzeug zur unterscheidenden Detektion von Feuchtigkeit und Salzlösungen auf einer Fahrzeugscheibe, mit einer Beleuchtungseinheit zur Einstrahlung von Licht in eine Fahrzeugscheibe und mit einem Lichtempfänger, welcher von der Fahrzeugscheibe reflektiertes Licht erfasst, sowie mit einem Koppelelement zur Ein- und Auskopplung von Licht in bzw. aus der Fahrzeugscheibe, wobei die Beleuchtungseinrichtung Licht über einen Einfallswinkelbereich in die Fahrzeugscheibe einstrahlt, der sich über mehrere Winkelgrade erstreckt, wobei der Lichtempfänger eine Vielzahl von Empfangselementen aufweist, wobei ein optisches System das von der Fahrzeugscheibe in einen Ausfallswinkelbereich reflektierte Licht auf Empfangselemente des Lichtempfängers abbildet und wobei der Lichtempfänger ein Signal generiert, aus dem eine Auswertevorrichtung den Grenzwinkel der Totalreflexion an der Fahrzeugscheibe ermittelt.
The importance of high data quality is increasing with the growing impact and distribution of ML systems and big data. Also the planned AI Act from the European commission defines challenging legal requirements for data quality especially for the market introduction of safety relevant ML systems. In this paper we introduce a novel approach that supports the data quality assurance process of multiple data quality aspects. This approach enables the verification of quantitative data quality requirements. The concept and benefits are introduced and explained on small example data sets. How the method is applied is demonstrated on the well known MNIST data set based an handwritten digits.
Refractive power measurements serve as the primary quality standard in the automotive glazing industry. In the light of autonomous driving new optical metrics are becoming more and more popular for specifying optical quality requirements for the windshield. Nevertheless, the link between those quantities and the refractive power needs to be established in order to ensure a holistic requirement profile for the windshield. As a consequence, traceable high-resolution refractive power measurements are still required for the glass quality assessment. Standard measurement systems using Moiré patterns for refractive power monitoring in the automotive industry are highly resolution limited, wherefore they are insufficient for evaluating the camera window area. Consequently, there is a need for more sophisticated refractive power measurement systems that provide a higher spatial resolution. In addition, a calibration procedure has to be developed in order to guarantee for comparability of the measurement results. For increasing the resolution, a measurement setup based on an auto-correlation algorithm is tested in this paper. Furthermore, a calibration procedure is established by using a single reference lens with a nominal refractive power of 100 km-1. For the calibration of the entire measurement range of the system, the lens is tilted by an inclination angle orthogonal to the optical axis. The effective refractive power is then given by the Kerkhof model. By adopting the measurement and calibration procedure presented in this paper, glass suppliers in the automotive industry will be able to detect relevant manufacturing defects within the camera window area more accurately paving the way for a holistic quality assurance of the windshield for future advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) functionalities. Concurrently, the traceability of the measurement results is ensured by establishing a calibration chain based on a single reference lens, which is traced back to international standards.
With the increasing capabilities of machine learning systems and their potential use in safety-critical systems, ensuring high-quality data is becoming increasingly important. In this paper we present a novel approach for the assurance of data quality. For this purpose, the mathematical basics are first discussed and the approach is presented using multiple examples. This results in the detection of data points with potentially harmful properties for the use in safety-critical systems.
Abstract The modulation-transfer function (MTF) is a fundamental optical metric to measure the optical quality of an imaging system. In the automotive industry it is used to qualify camera systems for ADAS/AD. Each modern ADAS/AD system includes evaluation algorithms for environment perception and decision making that are based on AI/ML methods and neural networks. The performance of these AI algorithms is measured by established metrics like Average Precision (AP) or precision-recall-curves. In this article we research the robustness of the link between the optical quality metric and the AI performance metric. A series of numerical experiments were performed with object detection and instance segmentation algorithms (cars, pedestrians) evaluated on image databases with varying optical quality. We demonstrate with these that for strong optical aberrations a distinct performance loss is apparent, but that for subtle optical quality differences – as might arise during production tolerances – this link does not exhibit a satisfactory correlation. This calls into question how reliable the current industry practice is where a produced camera is tested end-of-line (EOL) with the MTF, and fixed MTF thresholds are used to qualify the performance of the camera-under-test.
Wechselwirkungen zwischen Druckluftspeichern und Netzengpässen in zukünftigen Energiesystemen
(2013)
Asset management for distribution networks with high penetration of distributed energy resources
(2018)
Large-Scale Storage Technologies in the Context of future German Transmission Grid Congestions
(2012)
Cost optimal meter placement in low and medium voltagte grids considering stochastic dependencies
(2013)
Artificial intelligence methods based on machine learning or artificial neural networks have become indispensable in camera-based driver assistance systems, and also represent an essential building block for future autonomous driving. However, the great successes of these evaluation methods in environment perception and also driving planning are accompanied by equally great challenges in the validation and verification of these systems. One of the essential aspects for this is the required guaranteed safety of the functions under mass production conditions of the vehicles. This article explains this point of view using a detailed example from the field of camera-based driver assistance systems: the determination of inspection limits at the end of the production line. The camera is one of the most important sensor modalities for vehicle environment sensing and as such, the quality of the camera systems plays a key role in the safety argumentation of the overall system. Several illustrative application examples (role of simulations, calibration, influence of the windshield) will be presented. The basic ideas presented can be well transferred to the other sensor modalities (lidar, radar, ToF, etc.). The investigations/evidence show that doubts are allowed whether or how fast autonomous driving on level L4/5 will take hold as robotaxis or – even more challenging – in private ownership on a larger scale.
Efficient photoionisation, preparation and coherent manipulation of trapped /sup 171/Yb/sup +/-ions
(2005)
Differentiable Compound Optics and Processing Pipeline Optimization for End-to-end Camera Design
(2021)
Most modern commodity imaging systems we use directly for photography‐-or indirectly rely on for downstream applications‐-employ optical systems of multiple lenses that must balance deviations from perfect optics, manufacturing constraints, tolerances, cost, and footprint. Although optical designs often have complex interactions with downstream image processing or analysis tasks, today’s compound optics are designed in isolation from these interactions. Existing optical design tools aim to minimize optical aberrations, such as deviations from Gauss’ linear model of optics, instead of application-specific losses, precluding joint optimization with hardware image signal processing (ISP) and highly parameterized neural network processing. In this article, we propose an optimization method for compound optics that lifts these limitations. We optimize entire lens systems jointly with hardware and software image processing pipelines, downstream neural network processing, and application-specific end-to-end losses. To this end, we propose a learned, differentiable forward model for compound optics and an alternating proximal optimization method that handles function compositions with highly varying parameter dimensions for optics, hardware ISP, and neural nets. Our method integrates seamlessly atop existing optical design tools, such as Zemax. We can thus assess our method across many camera system designs and end-to-end applications. We validate our approach in an automotive camera optics setting‐-together with hardware ISP post processing and detection‐-outperforming classical optics designs for automotive object detection and traffic light state detection. For human viewing tasks, we optimize optics and processing pipelines for dynamic outdoor scenarios and dynamic low-light imaging. We outperform existing compartmentalized design or fine-tuning methods qualitatively and quantitatively, across all domain-specific applications tested.
Individual addressing of trapped ions and coupling of motional and spin states using RF radiation
(2009)
Individual electrodynamically trapped and laser cooled ions are addressed in frequency space using radio-frequency radiation in the presence of a static magnetic field gradient. In addition, an interaction between motional and spin states induced by an rf field is demonstrated employing rf optical double resonance spectroscopy. These are two essential experimental steps towards realizing a novel concept for implementing quantum simulations and quantum computing with trapped ions.
We present an experimental technique that allows the simultaneous spatial imaging and spectral analysis of falling droplets that exhibit lasing. Single droplet investigations serve as, among other purposes, a preliminary study for spray and combustion researchers. The described setup provides a valuable tool for the evaluation of microdroplet investigations with laser-spectroscopic techniques that rely on laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) or similar spectroscopical phenomena. The emphasis is that both spatial and spectral information are obtained from single-shot images of a falling droplet. Furthermore, combining spatial imaging and a spatially resolving optical multichannel analyzer makes a pointwise rastering of the droplets spectrum possible. This allows for the (almost) unambiguous determination of sources of influence on the spectrum of these droplets-such as geometrical distortion and lasing, nondissolved tracer lumps, and similar phenomena. Although the focus is on the experimental technique itself, we supplement detailed studies of lasing in falling microdroplets. These results were obtained with the aim of developing a system for measuring temperature distributions in droplets and sprays. In the light of these results the practice of calibrating a droplets spectrum by use of a bulk liquid sample needs to be critically reviewed.
Poincaré gauge theory of gravity: Friedman cosmology with even and odd parity modes: Analytic part
(2011)
This paper describes the modeling, optimization, mechanical design, and experimental characterization of a high power density wound field synchronous machine (WFSM) for electric vehicle traction applications. The WFSM is designed for brushless rotor field excitation using an axial flux hydrodynamic capacitive power coupler (CPC). The flexible design environment, which was used for large-scale multiobjective optimization of the WFSM, is described. A prototype WFSM, spray cooled with automatic transmission fluid, with an 80-kW output at a base speed of 4000 r/min has been tested. The prototyped WFSM achieves volumetric torque and power densities of 17.22 N·m/L and 7.19 kW/L referred to the envelope cylindrical volume of the active materials plus spray cooling rings. The specific torque and power densities are 4.69 N·m/kg and 1.95 kW/kg referred to the mass of the active materials and the shaft. The prototyped CPC provided up to 1-kW excitation power with a mass 600 g and volume of 0.271 L.
Image restoration is a process used to remove blur (from different sources like object motion or aberrations) from images by either non-blind or blind-deconvolution. The metrics commonly used to quantify the restoration process are peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index measure (SSIM). Often only a small sample of test images are used (like Lena or the camera guy). In optical design research PSNR and SSIM are not normally used, here image quality metrics based on linear system theory (e.g. modulation transfer function, MTF) are used to quantify optical errors like spherical or chromatic aberration. In this article we investigate how different image restoration algorithms can be quantified by applying image quality metrics. We start with synthetic image data that is used in camera test stands (e.g. Siemens star etc.), apply two different spatially variant degradation algorithms, and restore the original image by a direct method (Wiener filtering within sub-images), and by an iterative method (alternating direction method of multipliers, ADMM). Afterwards we compare the quality metrics (like MTF curves) for the original, the degraded and the restored image. As a first result we show that restoration algorithms sometimes fail in dealing with non-natural scenes, e.g. slanted-edge targets. Further, these first results indicate a correlation between degradation and restoration, i.e. the restoration algorithms are not capable of removing the optically relevant errors introduced by the degradation, a fact neither visible nor available from the PSNR values. We discuss the relevance in the context of the automotive industry, where image restoration may yield distinct advantages for camera-based applications, but testing methods rely on the used image quality metrics.
We had already demonstrated a numerical model for the point spread function (PSF) of an optical system that can efficiently model both the experimental measurements and the lens design simulations of the PSF. The novelty lies in the portability and the parameterization of this model, which allow for completely new ways to validate optical systems, which is especially interesting not only for mass production optics such as in the automotive industry but also for ophthalmology. The numerical basis for this model is a nonlinear regression of the PSF with an artificial neural network (ANN). After briefly describing both the principle and the applications of the model, we then discuss two optically important aspects: the spatial resolution and the accuracy of the model. Using mean squared error (MSE) as a metric, we vary the topology of the neural network, both in the number of neurons and in the number of hidden layers. Measurement and simulation of a PSF can have a much higher spatial resolution than the typical pixel size used in current camera sensors. We discuss the influence this has on the topology of the ANN. The relative accuracy of the averaged pixel MSE is below 10 − 4, thus giving confidence that the regression does indeed model the measurement data with good accuracy. This article is only the starting point, and we propose several research avenues for future work.
Training autonomous vehicles requires lots of driving sequences in all situations. Collecting and labeling these drive scenes is a very time-consuming and expensive process. Currently, it is not possible to reuse these drive scenes with different optical properties, because there exists no numerically efficient model for the transfer function of the optical system. We present a numerical model for the point spread function (PSF) of an optical system that can efficiently model both experimental measurements and lens design simulations of the PSF. The numerical basis for this model is a nonlinear regression of the PSF with an artificial neural network. The novelty lies in the portability and the parameterization of this model. We present a lens measurement series, yielding a numerical function for the PSF that depends only on the parameters defocus, field, and azimuth. By convolving existing images and videos with this PSF, we generate images as if seen through the measured lens. The methodology applies to any optical scenario, but we focus on the context of autonomous driving, where the quality of the detection algorithms depends directly on the optical quality of the used camera system. With this model, it is possible to reuse existing recordings, with the potential to avoid millions of test drive miles. The parameterization of the optical model allows for a method to validate the functional and safety limits of camera-based advanced driver assistance systems based on the real, measured lens actually used in the product.
In a previous work we have demonstrated a novel numerical model for the point spread function (PSF) of an optical system that can efficiently model both experimental measurements and lens design simulations of the PSF. The novelty lies in the portability and the parameterization of this model, which allows for completely new ways to validate optical systems, which is especially interesting for mass production optics like in the automotive industry, but also for ophtalmology. The numerical basis for this model is a non-linear regression of the PSF with an artificial neural network (ANN). In this work we examine two important aspects of this model: the spatial resolution and the accuracy of the model. Measurement and simulation of a PSF can have a much higher resolution then the typical pixel size used in current camera sensors, especially those for the automotive industry. We discuss the influence this has on on the topology of the ANN and the final application where the modeled PSF is actually used. Another important influence on the accuracy of the trained ANN is the error metric which is used during training. The PSF is a distinctly non-linear function, which varies strongly over field and defocus, but nonetheless exhibits strong symmetries and spatial relations. Therefore we examine different distance and similarity measures and discuss its influence on the modeling performance of the ANN.