A First Using Artificial Intelligence in PhiSat-1 – SatNews

Artificial intelligence (AI) is certainly the'flavor of the month' and has become a part of our daily lives. However, there is one area that, until now, hasn't been involved in AI… As ubiquitous as artificial intelligence has become in modern life -- from boosting the understanding of the cosmos to surfacing entertaining videos on a phone -- AI hasn't yet found its way into orbit. That is until September 2, when an experimental satellite about the size of a cereal box was ejected from a rocket's dispenser along with 45 other similarly small satellites. The satellite, named PhiSat-1, is now soaring at over 17,000 mph (27,500 kmh) in sun-synchronous orbit about 329 miles (530 km) overhead. PhiSat-1 contains a new hyperspectral-thermal camera and onboard AI processing from an Intel Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU) -- the same chip inside many smart cameras and even a $99 selfie taken by a drone on Earth.