SPACE:AI: Ushering in Earth Observation 2.0
Today’s Earth Observation satellites are fundamentally data collectors. They don’t understand what they’re observing; they simply gather data and downlink it all when passing over a ground station. But what if they could understand what they’re seeing? With SPACE:AI, they can.
SPACE:AI unlocks the full potential of Earth Observation satellites by empowering them with real-time vision processing. Ubotica’s flight-proven, end-to-end AI platform transforms these satellites into intelligent, efficient and always connected observers.
SPACE:AI at Work: Ship Detection at Jeddah Port
Consider this first raw satellite image taken by CogniSAT-6 of the port and ocean near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The challenge: quickly identify all ships in the area. For the first time, an Earth Observation satellite, powered by SPACE:AI, understands what it sees. Within 90 seconds, SPACE:AI detected every vessel within a 20 x 40-kilometre zone. This achievement demonstrates the model’s exceptional accuracy, even without prior training on CogniSAT-6 data.
Live Earth Intelligence: Instant Insights, Global Impact
CogniSAT-6 is designed to share these insights instantly. Through persistent inter-satellite communication, ship detection data can be relayed to users on Earth in real-time. This enables users to interact directly with the satellite, requesting more information or adjusting its focus.
SPACE:AI’s ship detection capabilities represent a significant advancement in the field. Unlike traditional methods requiring extensive training on thousands of processed images, SPACE:AI can perform real-time, on-board identification of ships from a single, raw, unprocessed image without prior training specific to the imager or sensor. This breakthrough technology dramatically simplifies and accelerates the process of extracting valuable information from Earth Observation data.
“This successful demonstration proves the advanced capabilities of CogniSAT-6 and our commitment to unlocking the true potential Earth Observation,” said Fintan Buckley, CEO of Ubotica. “Near real-time analysis of satellite data unlocks new possibilities for timely and effective decision-making across numerous sectors.”
Sean Mitchell, Chief Commercial Officer at Ubotica, added, “The performance of our ship detection model, combined with our rapid processing pipeline, showcases SPACE:AI’s transformative potential. We’re excited to see this technology in action and anticipate the significant impact CogniSAT-6 will have across industries.”
About Ubotica
Ubotica is at the forefront of autonomous SPACE:AI, dedicated to advancing Earth Observation capabilities and empowering real-time decision-making. Our innovations drive efficiency and support sustainable practices in various industries, including maritime security, environmental monitoring, and disaster response.
About Open Cosmos
Open Cosmos designs and builds satellite missions that enable organisations to use space applications to solve complex global challenges. Partnering with Ubotica on the CogniSAT-6 mission, Open Cosmos continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in space technology.
Press Release: Ubotica Successfully Demonstrate Ground-Based Image Processing from CogniSAT-6
Dublin, Ireland – June 13th, 2024 – Ubotica, a leader in autonomous SPACE:AI, in partnership with Open Cosmos, proudly announces a significant milestone in the CogniSAT-6 mission. We have successfully processed the first raw image from our newly launched CogniSAT-6 satellite on the ground, showcasing our ship detection application with remarkable precision and speed.
Achieving a New Benchmark in Earth Observation
In a demonstration of cutting-edge technology and innovation, Ubotica successfully ran the ship detection application on the first raw image acquired by CogniSAT-6. This achievement highlights the advanced capabilities of our model, which accurately identified ships in the image—a task that is notably challenging for the human eye.
Two images above: on the left shows the raw data and on the right illustrates the model’s predictions. The precision of the model is particularly impressive given that it was not trained on data from CogniSAT-6, as the satellite had not yet been operational during the training phase.
Exceptional Performance and Efficiency
Further demonstrating the advancement of the technology, Ubotica ran their complete processing pipeline on the flatsat and measured the performance. The results were outstanding: they processed the entire image, covering an area of 20 x 40 kilometres, in just about 1.5 minutes. Including overhead for data transfer and downlink, they are confident in meeting their goal of delivering insights within 5 minutes, often with time to spare.
Key Highlights
- Successful Application: The ship detection model accurately identified ships in the first raw image from CogniSAT-6, outperforming human visual capabilities.
- Processing Speed: The processing pipeline efficiently handled the entire image in approximately 1.5 minutes, ensuring rapid insight generation well within the 5-minute target.
- Unprecedented Accuracy: The model’s impressive performance, despite not being trained on CogniSAT-6 data, underscores the robustness and adaptability of our AI technology.
Statements from Leadership
Fintan Buckley, CEO at Ubotica, commented: “This successful demonstration is a testament to the advanced capabilities of CogniSAT-6 and our commitment to revolutionising Earth Observation. The ability to process and analyse satellite data in near real-time opens up new possibilities for timely and effective decision-making across various sectors.”
Sean Mitchell, Chief Commercial Officer at Ubotica, added: “The exceptional performance of our ship detection model, coupled with the speed of our processing pipeline, highlights the transformative potential of our SPACE technology. We are thrilled to see these capabilities in action and look forward to the impactful applications that CogniSAT-6 will support.”
About Ubotica
Ubotica is at the forefront of autonomous SPACE:AI, dedicated to advancing Earth Observation capabilities and empowering real-time decision-making. Our innovations drive efficiency and support sustainable practices in various industries, including maritime security, environmental monitoring, and disaster response.
About Open Cosmos
Open Cosmos designs and builds satellite missions that enable organisations to use space applications to solve complex global challenges. Partnering with Ubotica on the CogniSAT-6 mission, Open Cosmos continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in space technology.
Ubotica and Open Cosmos celebrate this milestone as a significant step forward in Earth Observation technology, demonstrating the impressive capabilities of CogniSAT-6 and its potential to deliver real-time, actionable insights that address critical global challenges.