November 2020: Deep tech 3D perception platform start-up CronAI has partnered with Ouster, the leading supplier of digital lidar technology, to support Ouster’s current spinning lidar sensors and next-generation solid-state lidar. CronAI’s senseEDGE™ platform – a self-optimising, 3D data, deep learning edge inference perception processing platform – enables innovators to develop intelligent solutions using 3D sensors to accurately perceive the real world.
The partnership provides Ouster’s partner and customer communities with early access to CronAI’s perception platform, thereby enabling their teams to bridge the gap between complex 3D sensor data perception algorithms and real world applications on the product edge.
“This partnership is significant, representing collaboration between a leader in lidar sensor technologies and an AI Software & Hardware platform for 3D Perception,” said Tushar Chhabra, co-founder and CEO at CronAI. “Our heterogeneous software platform is specifically designed for processing 3D sensor data and for computer vision, and through our work together, Ouster can focus on building quality sensor technologies while their customers can significantly mitigate their investment risks. We’ve architected our platform to leverage the features of FPGAs supporting sequential, parallel and mixed workloads at lower precisions. That all adds up to improvement in throughput, lower latency and reduced power consumption. Now innovators can develop solutions using 3D sensors without the performance bottlenecks of traditional GPU compute hardware.”
Clement Kong, General Manager, APAC at Ouster added: “We’re proud to add CronAI to our partner ecosystem. A 3D perception platform with edge processing will help customers accelerate their projects and unlock the perception capabilities of high-resolution digital lidar. CronAI’s platform can help us reshape the autonomous world – unlocking the potential of smart spaces, transforming the way we secure critical infrastructure and enabling new levels of industrial automation.”
The acceleration of 3D sensor data perception on an edge inference platform will enhance the value of Ouster’s award winning lidar technology by reducing customers’ need to invest R&D dollars, reducing time to market and increasing the efficiency of deployments.
By accelerating algorithms and neural networks on the product edge, Ouster can help its customers rapidly innovate and achieve higher performance per watt, performance per dollar and throughput per TOP. The partnership with CronAI aims to overcome the traditional software and processing bottlenecks that customers have faced when building applications and solutions with 3D sensors.
CronAI recently opened its early access program to partners and commenced porting of customers’ or third-party perception software. It is now accepting pre-orders for development kits to ship in early 2021.
For more information, visit www.cronai.ai/partner-program
About CronAI
Struck by the absence of intelligent, scalable, purpose built ‘whole solutions’ for 3D sensor data perception processing while developing applications for the defence industry, Tushar Chhabra and Saurav Argawala set out to bridge these critical gaps and breakdown performance bottlenecks when they founded CronAI in 2015. Now, CronAI is developing a disruptive 3D sensor data edge-processing platform, creating an enabling foundation for next-generation applications across mobility, transport infrastructure, smart spaces, automation and security. Its senseEDGE™ platform is architected from the ground up and specifically designed to address the acceleration requirements of 3D sensing perception processing at the edge. The solution is a ground-breaking artificially evolving, self-optimizing heterogeneous FPGA-based edge platform. It bridges the gap between complex 3D sensing dynamics and real-world applications, offering:
- Accelerated algorithms for 3D sensing
- Scalable to support next generations of algorithms and 3D sensing modalities
- User-optimized throughput and latency
- Continuous real-time self-adaptating
CronAI is backed by Kitaki and Your Nest, accelerated by Techstars and Cisco. CronAI: Derby,UK | Gurgaon | Bangalore www.cronai.ai
About Ouster
Ouster builds high-resolution lidar sensors for the transportation, robotics, industrial automation, and smart infrastructure industries. Using its unique digital lidar architecture, Ouster’s sensors are reliable, compact and affordable, while delivering camera-like image quality. Since its founding in 2015, Ouster has secured over 800 customers and $140 million in funding. Ouster is headquartered in San Francisco and led by CEO Angus Pacala and CTO Mark Frichtl. www.ouster.com/
