On-device Self-supervised Learning of Visual Perception Tasks aboard Hardware-limited Nano-quadrotors

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Hauptverfasser: Cereda, Elia, Rusci, Manuele, Giusti, Alessandro, Palossi, Daniele
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Cereda, Elia
Rusci, Manuele
Giusti, Alessandro
Palossi, Daniele
author_facet Cereda, Elia
Rusci, Manuele
Giusti, Alessandro
Palossi, Daniele
contents Sub-\SI{50}{\gram} nano-drones are gaining momentum in both academia and industry. Their most compelling applications rely on onboard deep learning models for perception despite severe hardware constraints (\ie sub-\SI{100}{\milli\watt} processor). When deployed in unknown environments not represented in the training data, these models often underperform due to domain shift. To cope with this fundamental problem, we propose, for the first time, on-device learning aboard nano-drones, where the first part of the in-field mission is dedicated to self-supervised fine-tuning of a pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN). Leveraging a real-world vision-based regression task, we thoroughly explore performance-cost trade-offs of the fine-tuning phase along three axes: \textit{i}) dataset size (more data increases the regression performance but requires more memory and longer computation); \textit{ii}) methodologies (\eg fine-tuning all model parameters vs. only a subset); and \textit{iii}) self-supervision strategy. Our approach demonstrates an improvement in mean absolute error up to 30\% compared to the pre-trained baseline, requiring only \SI{22}{\second} fine-tuning on an ultra-low-power GWT GAP9 System-on-Chip. Addressing the domain shift problem via on-device learning aboard nano-drones not only marks a novel result for hardware-limited robots but lays the ground for more general advancements for the entire robotics community.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_04071
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On-device Self-supervised Learning of Visual Perception Tasks aboard Hardware-limited Nano-quadrotors
Cereda, Elia
Rusci, Manuele
Giusti, Alessandro
Palossi, Daniele
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Sub-\SI{50}{\gram} nano-drones are gaining momentum in both academia and industry. Their most compelling applications rely on onboard deep learning models for perception despite severe hardware constraints (\ie sub-\SI{100}{\milli\watt} processor). When deployed in unknown environments not represented in the training data, these models often underperform due to domain shift. To cope with this fundamental problem, we propose, for the first time, on-device learning aboard nano-drones, where the first part of the in-field mission is dedicated to self-supervised fine-tuning of a pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN). Leveraging a real-world vision-based regression task, we thoroughly explore performance-cost trade-offs of the fine-tuning phase along three axes: \textit{i}) dataset size (more data increases the regression performance but requires more memory and longer computation); \textit{ii}) methodologies (\eg fine-tuning all model parameters vs. only a subset); and \textit{iii}) self-supervision strategy. Our approach demonstrates an improvement in mean absolute error up to 30\% compared to the pre-trained baseline, requiring only \SI{22}{\second} fine-tuning on an ultra-low-power GWT GAP9 System-on-Chip. Addressing the domain shift problem via on-device learning aboard nano-drones not only marks a novel result for hardware-limited robots but lays the ground for more general advancements for the entire robotics community.
title On-device Self-supervised Learning of Visual Perception Tasks aboard Hardware-limited Nano-quadrotors
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.04071