New suite of tools brings NVIDIA-powered models to edge MCUs, MPUs, and AI accelerators, with the ability to supercharge model training with synthetic data

Edge Impulse, the leading platform for building, refining and deploying machine learning models and algorithms to edge devices, has released a new suite of tools developed on NVIDIA’s Omniverse and AI platforms, bringing state-of-the-art AI models to a previously inaccessible class of devices on the edge, and significantly speeding up the maturation of those models.

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NVIDIA TAO visual inspection in Edge Impulse (Graphic: Business Wire)

For the first time, transfer the power of NVIDIA TAO models from GPUs to run on any edge device, including MCUs and MPUs.

Edge Impulse has pioneered a solution that automates and accelerates the use of large NVIDIA GPU-trained models on affordable MCUs and MPUs with AI accelerators. Users now have access to a large library of NVIDIA production-tested pretrained models directly in the Edge Impulse platform, and Edge Impulse’s EON Tuner simplifies selection of the optimal model for each application.

With the Edge Impulse and NVIDIA TAO Toolkit, engineers can create accurate, custom, production-ready computer vision models that can be seamlessly deployed to edge-optimized hardware, including the Arm® Cortex®-M based NXP I.MXRT1170, Alif E3, STMicro STM32H747AI, and Renesas CK-RA8D1. The Edge Impulse platform allows users to now provide their own custom data with GPU-trained NVIDIA TAO models like YOLO and RetinaNet, optimizing them for deployment on efficient, cost-optimized edge devices, including MCUs, MPUs, and accelerators.

This new development also enables deployment of large-scale NVIDIA models to Arm-based devices, opening up a significant universe of hardware that can now be augmented with best-in-breed AI and ML models.

"The advent of generative AI and the growth of IoT deployments means the industry must evolve to run AI models at the edge," said Paul Williamson, senior vice president and general manager, IoT Line of Business, Arm. "NVIDIA and Edge Impulse have now made it possible to deploy state-of-the-art computer vision models on a broad range of technology based on Arm Cortex-M and Cortex-A CPUs and Arm Ethos™-U NPUs, unlocking a multitude of new AI use cases at the edge."

Edge Impulse has developed applications for synthetic data and testing environments for the edge with NVIDIA Omniverse, enabling faster time-to-market in key business verticals.

Synthetic data generation is a game-changer for industries operating in complex industrial, remote, or sensitive environments, where obtaining real-world data can be costly, time-consuming, create privacy concerns, or simply cannot account for all types of scenarios.

NVIDIA Omniverse Replicator, a framework for developing custom synthetic data generation pipelines, can be integrated into existing workflows to generate highly realistic, physically based datasets tailored to train computer vision models. Now, with Omniverse Replicator combined with Edge Impulse, users can rapidly create professional-grade industrial ML models that can run on resource-constrained devices, for use cases such as visual inspection of manufacturing production lines to detect defects, equipment malfunctions, or surgery inventory object detection to prevent postoperative complications. This allows customers to:

• Reduce physical prototyping and testing costs via virtual tools
• Speed up development time and experimentation, leading to faster time-to-market
• Simulate sensor and model behavior, test MCU compatibility, and more
• Use synthetic data to fortify model reliability and create difficult-to-replicate scenarios

"Working closely with NVIDIA has enabled us to significantly expand the practical applications of AI on the edge for critical business use cases in industrial productivity, healthcare, and much more. For the first time, NVIDIA's state-of-the-art machine learning research and model architectures can be deployed on any device under the sun, from the smallest microcontrollers to the latest GPUs and neural accelerators," said Jan Jongboom, co-founder and CTO of Edge Impulse.

"NVIDIA Omniverse and TAO have incredibly simplified the creation of all computer vision models, including the latest generative AI models," said Deepu Talla, vice president of robotics and edge computing at NVIDIA. "Edge Impulse is integrating this powerful capability into easy-to-use workflows for the hundreds of billions of IoT and edge devices, including MCUs, accelerators and CPUs."

Get set up on Edge Impulse with NVIDIA TAO and Omniverse today. Learn more about these new tools with the announcement blog post and the getting started documentation for NVIDIA TAO and Omniverse.

About Edge Impulse

Edge Impulse streamlines the creation of AI and machine learning models for edge hardware, allowing devices to make decisions and offer insight where data is gathered. Edge Impulse’s technology empowers developers to bring more AI products to market, and helps enterprise teams rapidly develop production-ready solutions in weeks instead of years. Powerful automations make it easier to build valuable datasets and develop advanced AI for edge devices from MCUs to CPUs to GPUs. Used by health and wearable organizations like Tunstall, Know Labs, and NOWATCH, industrial organizations like TKE and Lexmark, as well as top silicon vendors and over 100,000 developers, Edge Impulse has become the trusted ML platform for enterprises and developers alike. To learn more, visit edgeimpulse.com.

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