Research Project GreenEdge
Up to 95 % energy savings with hybrid edge AI for the smart city infrastructures of tomorrow
Research focus: Sustainable Engineering and Energy, Applied Artificial Intelligence
In the smart cities of tomorrow, traffic data volumes are multiplying. The GreenEdge R&D research project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and led by the FZI consortium, shows how edge devices and specialized AI hardware can be used to process this data directly at the point of origin, in the sensor environment.
A resource-efficient and climate-friendly approach
The smart city of tomorrow requires (partially) autonomous, electrified vehicles for both private and public transport. Consequently, a large number of cars will be guided through complex traffic scenarios in the future. This will generate vast quantities of data that must be processed and transmitted reliably via vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. This will require a considerable amount of energy. However, by combining classic and neuromorphic AI, up to 95% of energy can be saved, and the need for energy-intensive cloud solutions can be avoided.
Results to date from the research project, which will run until the end of the year:
➕ Sensor data was recorded at the real-world laboratory Test Area Autonomous Driving Baden-Württemberg in Karlsruhe to demonstrate the cooperation between the two AI types.
➕ Tested in practice: In the Hamburg test field, data processing was tested with an integrated edge system and without a cloud application at a junction near the Elbphilharmonie concert hall. The edge AI system required a power consumption of only around 3 watts.
➕Particularly exciting is the combination of event and frame cameras, supported by hybrid SNN-ANN networks and specially developed hardware accelerators. This opens up considerable new energy-saving potential in edge data processing.
Insights into GreenEdge
Would you like to learn more about the project? For more in-depth information, see the Joint Publication IEEE Smart Cities “Low-Power Traffic Surveillance using Multiple RGB and Event Cameras: A Survey.”
Our project video also provides a good overview and insights into GreenEdge:
Our project partners
The GreenEdge R&D project, which is part of the OCTOPUS research program, is coordinated by the FZI.
Further project partners include:
About the FZI
The FZI Research Center for Information Technology, with its headquarters in Karlsruhe and a branch office in Berlin, is a non-profit institution dedicated to research in information technology applications and technology transfer. It delivers the latest scientific findings in information technology to companies and public institutions. It qualifies individuals for academic and business careers, as well as for the leap into self-employment. Supervised by professors from various faculties, the research groups at the FZI develop interdisciplinary concepts, software, hardware, and system solutions for their clients and implement the solutions found as prototypes. The FZI House of Living Labs offers a distinctive research environment for applied research. The FZI is an innovation partner of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and a strategic partner of the German Informatics Society (GI).