Spun out from Sheffield University in 2020 Opteran has reverse-engineered natural insect brain algorithms into a commercially available software product known as Opteran Mind that enables autonomous machines to efficiently move through challenging environments without the need for extensive data or training.
As previously reported by The Engineer, the technology is already being deployed in a number of settings, including in advanced warehouse robots developed by German logistics specialist Safelog.
In this the latest initiative - which is being funded through the European Space Agency’s General Support Technology Programme - Opteran is conducting tests at the Airbus Defence and Space Mars Yard (a simulated Martian environment at the Airbus facility in Stevenage, Hertfordshire) exploring how its technology could enable rovers to understand depth perception in the toughest off-world environments.
Opteran CEO David Rajan told The Engineer that the technology has considerable advantages over existing approaches to autonomy in space robotics, which are typically reliant on power hungry and time-consuming approaches to computation. Whilst today’s off-world robots take minutes to compute a map of their surroundings from multiple cameras before every movement, Opteran’s visual and perception systems offer Mars rovers’ the ability to understand their surroundings in milliseconds, in challenging conditions, without adding to the robots critical power consumption. “Today, people use systems that need to gather a lot of data and compute it, and it takes minutes to compute,” he said. “We're doing it instantaneously at 90 frames per second, which means that the machines no longer have to stop to process the world around them.”
There is a major opportunity for Opteran to step up and resolve a challenge facing all the major players in space robotics
He added that the low power requirements of Opteran’s technology and the fact that it’s effectively a series of algorithms on a lightweight chip also make it ideal for space-base applications, where weight and energy efficiency are key considerations.
The near-term focus for the so-called Bio inspired Navigation for Extraterrestrial Exploration (BNEE) project is on depth estimation for obstacle detection, and the mid-term focus on infrastructure-free visual navigation. Once the results of the initial testing have been presented to ESA the goal would be to move to the next stage of grant funding which would begin to focus on deployment and commercialization.
In the longer term, Rajan believes the technology could significantly extend navigation capabilities in extreme off-world terrain, ultimately providing rovers with continuous navigation while being able to drive further and faster. “Today, no such flight-ready systems exist,” he said, “so there is a major opportunity for Opteran to step up and resolve a challenge facing all the major players in space robotics.”
In the meantime, the company is exploring a range of other applications including in mining, warehouse robotics, oil and gas pipeline inspection and even in consumer drone products. It’s also about to embark on a project exploring applications of the technology in disaster relief where it has potential for navigating disaster scenes and other environment where maps are no longer useful. “Our long-term vision is to provide natural autonomy with the Opteran Mind to every machine, on Earth and beyond,” added Rajan.
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