Researchers at the Space Applications Centre (SAC), part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), have created an AI model that provides a full suite of features for monitoring airports and tracking aircraft, in addition to offering surveillance capabilities.
Collaboration and Testing
According to a report by The Times of India, this model was developed in partnership with an institute and has been tested in airports located in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Pune. The AI model makes use of the CosmiQ Works RarePlanes dataset, which is an open-source dataset for machine learning provided by CosmiQ and AI Reverie. This dataset includes both real-world and artificially created satellite images.
Training Data Sources
In addition to the RarePlanes dataset, the researchers trained the model using the Airbus Aircraft detection dataset and satellite imagery from Indian remote sensing.
"A senior official mentioned to The Times of India that the deep learning models used were named YOLOv5 and YOLOv7, which are part of the You Only Look Once (YOLO) series, known for their applications in detecting aircraft within satellite images," the report stated.
Accuracy and Future Enhancements
The model achieved an accuracy of 94% for larger aircraft and 88% for smaller ones, with YOLOv7 proving to be the better performer in these evaluations. The research team is currently focused on enhancing the model's features by integrating Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data, which can assist in detecting aircraft even during severe weather events.
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