Event-Based Vision Sensor Lifetime Degradation in Low Earth Orbit
Zachary Wilcox, Rui Graca, Brian McReynolds, John Williams, Saeed Afshar, Alexandre Marcireau, Matthew G. McHarg, Gregory Cohen
TL;DR
This study shows that event-based vision sensors can survive long-term in space with minimal degradation due to radiation.
Contribution
First real-world study of radiation effects on event-based vision sensors in low Earth orbit.
Findings
Degradation effects on EVS pixel circuits were minimal over the mission's lifetime.
Only one of 18 measures showed a clear deterioration trend.
DAVIS 240C sensors demonstrated high resilience for long-term space missions.
Abstract
We present the first study into the long-term effects of radiation on an Event-based Vision Sensor (EVS) using real-world data from orbit. Falcon Neuro is an experimental, first-of-its-kind payload attached to the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS) operating two DAVIS 240C Event-based Vision Sensors. This study considers data gathered by Falcon Neuro between January 2022 and September 2024 over a wide range of scenes from Earth-facing and space-facing sensors. Falcon Neuro contains the first working EVS system in orbit. While EVS radiation degradation has been studied on the ground, this is the first study of degradation for EVS cameras of any kind in a real, uncontrolled environment. EVS pixel circuits are unique, analog, and far more complex than CMOS or CCD cameras. By utilizing distinct and unique features in the data created by the different pixel circuits in the…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Click any figure to enlarge with its caption.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
Figure 15
Figure 16
Figure 17
Figure 18
Figure 19
Figure 20
Figure 21
Figure 22
Figure 23Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsCCD and CMOS Imaging Sensors · Advanced Memory and Neural Computing · Radiation Effects in Electronics