FPGA-based real-time moving target detection system for unmanned aerial vehicle application

• Main Authors: Tang, Jia Wei, Shaikh-Husin, Nasir, Sheikh, Usman Ullah, Marsono, Muhammad Nadzir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2016
• Subjects: TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/71433/1/NasirShaikhFPGA-basedreal-timemovingHusin2016_.pdf; http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/71433/; https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84965106309&doi=10.1155%2f2016%2f8457908&partnerID=40&md5=1845f7ce7de4e03e59fc4c8ab62884de

Moving target detection is the most common task for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to find and track object of interest from a bird's eye view in mobile aerial surveillance for civilian applications such as search and rescue operation. The complex detection algorithm can be implemented in a real-time embedded system using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This paper presents the development of real-time moving target detection System-on-Chip (SoC) using FPGA for deployment on a UAV. The detection algorithm utilizes area-based image registration technique which includes motion estimation and object segmentation processes. The moving target detection system has been prototyped on a low-cost Terasic DE2-115 board mounted with TRDB-D5M camera. The system consists of Nios II processor and stream-oriented dedicated hardware accelerators running at 100 MHz clock rate, achieving 30-frame per second processing speed for 640 × 480 pixels' resolution greyscale videos.