How we work

Capabilities

Event-based visionNewCameras that see fast movement without blur.Battery and powerBattery boards that report every cell to the machine.Long-range linksRadio links that keep a drone connected far from its pilot.Embedded hardwareElectronics built for heat, shaking and weather.

Products

MODB-BB 6S–12SMonitor, balancer and fuel gauge for large drone packs.MODB-SB 3S–8SCompact BMS with on-board current sensing to 100 A.MODL-Core pMDDL2450Carrier board for Microhard pMDDL IP-mesh radios.All productsWhich battery board do I need?Battery boards for your application

Company

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Event-based vision

A camera that sees movement without blur.

A normal camera takes a whole picture at a time, and anything that moves while the shutter is open comes out smeared. In an event camera, each pixel reports on its own, the moment its brightness changes, timed to a millionth of a second. Fast movement stays sharp.

Tell us what’s moving too fast
Landing marker smeared into a blur, as a normal camera sees it at 2 metres a secondNormal camera
The same landing marker, sharp, as our event-camera system sees itOur event camera
Left: a model of a normal camera at 2 m/s. Right: our system at the same moment, in simulation.

01 / The problem we started with

Landing a drone at speed.

Problem
GPS brings a drone to within a few metres of its landing pad. For the last few metres, most systems use a camera that looks for a marker on the pad. That works while the drone comes in slowly. At 5 metres a second, a camera with a 10-millisecond exposure smears every edge by 5 centimetres, and the marker turns into a blur.
What it had to do
  • See the pad hundreds of times a second
  • Work from bright sun to near dark, including under flickering lights
  • Know where the pad is to about a centimetre
What we built
An event camera, and a marker on the landing pad that lights up for it. We call it StrobeTag, and the patent is filed.
How we checked it

We built the whole system in software first: the camera, the marker, the lighting and the drone’s movement. In simulation it found the marker hundreds of times a second while moving at 2 metres a second, and placed it to within about a centimetre. It also found three design faults before we bought any parts.

  1. Position fix 1, at 0 ms0 ms
  2. Position fix 2, at 1.8 ms1.8 ms
  3. Position fix 3, at 3.6 ms3.6 ms
  4. Position fix 4, at 5.3 ms5.3 ms
  5. Position fix 5, at 7.1 ms7.1 ms
Five position fixes, less than 2 milliseconds apart. A normal camera at 30 pictures a second would take one blurred picture in this time.
Simulation stageProvisional patent filed

02 / Where else it helps

Other problems that move too fast.

Avoiding collisions

A fast drone or robot needs to see an obstacle early. An event camera reports a change as it happens, without waiting for the next picture, and it copes with glare and low light. That gives the machine more time to react.

We can design this with you

Inspection on fast production lines

Parts on a fast line blur in a normal camera unless the camera is very fast or the light is very bright. An event camera picks out edges and flaws as parts move past, and it records only what changes, so there is less to sift through. It can also watch a machine vibrate and notice when the pattern changes.

We can design this with you

Robots docking in poor light

Warehouse robots that find their chargers by camera struggle in dim aisles and harsh light. A marker that lights up for an event camera can guide them in.

We can design this with you

03 / How a vision project runs

We start with your scene.

Before anyone buys a camera, we listen to the problem and simulate your scene: what moves, how fast, and in what light. You find out early whether an event camera is the right tool and what it needs to see. From there, the same six steps take it to a product.

How we work
  1. 01ListenYour problem or idea, in your words.
  2. 02ShapeOptions, checked against cost, volume and the rules you sell under.
  3. 03SpecifyWhat it must do, written down and signed off.
  4. 04DesignElectronics, software and enclosure, built to the spec.
  5. 05ProveSimulated early, then tested against every line.
  6. 06DeliverPrototypes, production files and documents, handed to you.

Contact

Is something moving too fast for your camera?

Tell us what it is, how fast it moves and where. We’ll tell you whether an event camera can help.

Your message

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