Browsing by Author "Kalgaonkar, Priyank B."

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    AI on the Edge with CondenseNeXt: An Efficient Deep Neural Network for Devices with Constrained Computational Resources
    (2021-08) Kalgaonkar, Priyank B.; El-Sharkawy, Mohamed A.; King, Brian S.; Rizkalla, Maher E.
    Research work presented within this thesis propose a neoteric variant of deep convolutional neural network architecture, CondenseNeXt, designed specifically for ARM-based embedded computing platforms with constrained computational resources. CondenseNeXt is an improved version of CondenseNet, the baseline architecture whose roots can be traced back to ResNet. CondeseNeXt replaces group convolutions in CondenseNet with depthwise separable convolutions and introduces group-wise pruning, a model compression technique, to prune (remove) redundant and insignificant elements that either are irrelevant or do not affect performance of the network upon disposition. Cardinality, a new dimension to the existing spatial dimensions, and class-balanced focal loss function, a weighting factor inversely proportional to the number of samples, has been incorporated in order to relieve the harsh effects of pruning, into the design of CondenseNeXt’s algorithm. Furthermore, extensive analyses of this novel CNN architecture was performed on three benchmarking image datasets: CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100 and ImageNet by deploying the trained weight on to an ARM-based embedded computing platform: NXP BlueBox 2.0, for real-time image classification. The outputs are observed in real-time in RTMaps Remote Studio’s console to verify the correctness of classes being predicted. CondenseNeXt achieves state-of-the-art image classification performance on three benchmark datasets including CIFAR-10 (4.79% top-1 error), CIFAR-100 (21.98% top-1 error) and ImageNet (7.91% single model, single crop top-5 error), and up to 59.98% reduction in forward FLOPs compared to CondenseNet. CondenseNeXt can also achieve a final trained model size of 2.9 MB, however at the cost of 2.26% in accuracy loss. Thus, performing image classification on ARM-Based computing platforms without requiring a CUDA enabled GPU support, with outstanding efficiency.
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    Enhanced 3D Object Detection and Tracking in Autonomous Vehicles: An Efficient Multi-Modal Deep Fusion Approach
    (2024-08) Kalgaonkar, Priyank B.; El-Sharkawy, Mohamed; King, Brian S.; Rizkalla, Maher E.; Abdallah, Mustafa A.
    This dissertation delves into a significant challenge for Autonomous Vehicles (AVs): achieving efficient and robust perception under adverse weather and lighting conditions. Systems that rely solely on cameras face difficulties with visibility over long distances, while radar-only systems struggle to recognize features like stop signs, which are crucial for safe navigation in such scenarios. To overcome this limitation, this research introduces a novel deep camera-radar fusion approach using neural networks. This method ensures reliable AV perception regardless of weather or lighting conditions. Cameras, similar to human vision, are adept at capturing rich semantic information, whereas radars can penetrate obstacles like fog and darkness, similar to X-ray vision. The thesis presents NeXtFusion, an innovative and efficient camera-radar fusion network designed specifically for robust AV perception. Building on the efficient single-sensor NeXtDet neural network, NeXtFusion significantly enhances object detection accuracy and tracking. A notable feature of NeXtFusion is its attention module, which refines critical feature representation for object detection, minimizing information loss when processing data from both cameras and radars. Extensive experiments conducted on large-scale datasets such as Argoverse, Microsoft COCO, and nuScenes thoroughly evaluate the capabilities of NeXtDet and NeXtFusion. The results show that NeXtFusion excels in detecting small and distant objects compared to existing methods. Notably, NeXtFusion achieves a state-of-the-art mAP score of 0.473 on the nuScenes validation set, outperforming competitors like OFT by 35.1% and MonoDIS by 9.5%. NeXtFusion's excellence extends beyond mAP scores. It also performs well in other crucial metrics, including mATE (0.449) and mAOE (0.534), highlighting its overall effectiveness in 3D object detection. Visualizations of real-world scenarios from the nuScenes dataset processed by NeXtFusion provide compelling evidence of its capability to handle diverse and challenging environments.