April 20, 2021 NASA Spacesuit Detection Challenge

NASA and Topcoder have a long history of doing important and innovative work together. The newest example of how NASA leverages the Topcoder Community is this intricate Computer Vision data science challenge currently running on Topcoder.

ABOUT THE CHALLENGE

A spacesuit has unique movement patterns that can be observed during spacewalks or Extravehicular Activities (EVA), and mobility assessments are needed to detect and reduce suit injury risk. The problem is that it is very difficult to measure spacesuit motion in uncontrolled environments such as training facilities. NASA is seeking innovative solutions to label and identify spacesuit motions from conventional and readily available video and photographs to overcome current system limitations in terms of cost and training feasibility.

The winning computer vision algorithms are expected to have the ability to:

• Detect spacesuits in a variety of environments and lightning conditions.
• Correctly discriminate between an “unsuited” person and a spacesuit.
• Robustly extract suit postures from images partially obscured.
• Capable of functioning with a single or multiple spacesuits.

Once validated, the selected system may be deployed in current and future missions and analog training events. Additionally, the winning solution may be tested and validated on video recordings collected during the next-generation spacesuit testing.

Learn more and get involved

Go here to see the details about this challenge and register to participate.

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