Image processing with cellular nonlinear networks implemented on field-programmable gate arrays for real-time applications in nuclear fusion.

In the past years cameras have become increasingly common tools in scientific applications. They are now quite systematically used in magnetic confinement fusion, to the point that infrared imaging is starting to be used systematically for real-time machine protection in major devices. However, in order to guarantee that the control system can always react rapidly in case of critical situations, the time required for the processing of the images must be as predictable as possible. The approach described in this paper combines the new computational paradigm of cellular nonlinear networks (CNNs) with field-programmable gate arrays and has been tested in an application for the detection of hot spots on the plasma facing components in JET. The developed system is able to perform real-time hot spot recognition, by processing the image stream captured by JET wide angle infrared camera, with the guarantee that computational time is constant and deterministic. The statistical results obtained from a quite extensi...