The Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d’Essais (LNE) has announced the creation of LEIA, the world’s first generic platform dedicated to the evaluation of artificial intelligence, following funding received from the French government to the tune of 390,000 euros. 390,000 in funding from the French government, which is part of the “support for industrial investment in the regions” programme set up in conjunction with the Île de France region. Scheduled for the first half of 2022, the LEIA platform (Laboratory for the Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence) will represent a total investment of 785,000 euros.
2.7 billion to support the development of key markets, including the artificial intelligence market. But the development of this market will only be possible if artificial intelligence systems are rigorously qualified.
This is why LNE has been working for several years to develop methods to assess the performance and safety of agricultural and industrial robots, autonomous vehicles, voice and image recognition systems and many others. Today, thanks to the support of France Relance, a new stage in the evaluation of artificial intelligence will be reached by providing France, through its National Metrology and Testing Laboratory, with a platform that is unique in the world: LEIA.
Artificial Intelligence Evaluation Laboratory: LEIA
Housed in a room 6m in diameter and 3m high, the LEIA platform will be made up of a 360° video projection system, enabling the reconstruction of an “artificial nature” and plunging the systems to be characterized (personal assistance robots, intelligent cameras, civil and military intervention robots, etc.) into a simulated dynamic reality.
It will then be possible to subject the system (robot, camera, etc.) to a multitude of test scenarios and evaluate the reactions in a controlled environment.
A new simulation software
A central and essential element of the LEIA platform, a simulation software will indeed allow the generation of dynamic and realistic test scenarios offering a multitude of environments (interior of an apartment, road, etc.) and moods (weather and sound conditions, luminosity, etc.).
The virtual world reconstructed by this software will include complex scenes, such as people moving around an apartment or road traffic, thanks to realistic images in very high definition. The simulator will be able to take into account in real time in the projected scene the motion data acquired via the instrumentation of the systems being characterized (movement of wheels and tracks, mechatronic legs, etc.).
Currently, no simulation software available on the market is as complete. It will be built on the basis of an already proven product for the development of autonomous mobility systems, but additional modules will then be developed to expand the scope of environments.
Supporting industry recovery and competitiveness
The creation of this platform is fully in line with LNE’s missions to support industry, since several collaborations with the regional and national ecosystem (SMEs, major industrial groups, business clusters, academia) have already been launched to promote “Made in France” AI.
By working for strong and influential metrology to serve our industrial independence, LNE is fully in line with France Relance’s ambitions, since the key markets targeted by this plan are perfectly in line with LNE’s current development priorities: health, energy transition, future technologies and, of course, digital technology with artificial intelligence.
Translated from Le LNE présente sa plateforme LEIA dédiée à l’évaluation de l’intelligence artificielle
