Hey everyone,
I'm Saad, and I'm thrilled to share that my project has been selected for Axelera's Pioneer 10 Project Challenge! I am a practicing engineer (EE). When I'm not at work, you can usually find me in my home lab, working on different projects. I especially love projects that interact with the real world, like those involving machine vision.
What Am I Building?
I'm developing an intelligent gimbal system that will act like a "Sauron eye" for the sea right outside my balcony! Yes, the evil Sauron’s eye, but I am hoping this one will be slightly less evil. This 2-axis platform will carry cameras and, powered by Axelera's AI hardware, continuously scan the waters. My system will detect and classify different types of boats and track their activity (location, time, etc) to identify potential illegal fishing. If a fishing boat is spotted in restricted zones or at the wrong times, the system will send an immediate alert via Alexa or trigger an alarm. The gimbal will also go into tracking mode, following the boat's escape direction, which could be crucial information for enforcement agencies like the coast guard.
Why Does This Project Matter to Me?
Living by the seaside, I've seen firsthand the importance of marine conservation and adherence to regulations. This project is my way of contributing to smarter, more proactive environmental monitoring. It's about leveraging cutting-edge AI to make a real-world impact, ensuring the sustainability of our marine ecosystems.
What's Next?
My immediate focus will be on integrating the Axelera board as the brain of the system. It will run the AI detection models and manage the sea-scanning logic. I'll be using both wide-angle and telephoto cameras for observation and recognition. The Axelera application will implement the rules for illegal fishing and handle the notifications/alarms and communicating with a microcontroller board that will control the gimbal motors.
I'm very excited to dive in and get building. Looking forward to connecting with all of you in the community!
). There’s huge scope to this too. I don’t know what kind of resources currently go into off-shore enforecement, but I can only imagine it’s a lot! So a project like this could make a big difference.