Analyzing Transformer Models and Knowledge Distillation Approaches for Image Captioning on Edge AI
This addresses the problem of real-time perception for autonomous robots and industrial inspection in edge AI, but it is incremental as it builds on existing transformer and knowledge distillation methods.
The research tackled deploying transformer-based image captioning models on edge devices by evaluating resource-effective transformers and applying knowledge distillation, demonstrating accelerated inference on resource-constrained devices while maintaining performance.
Edge computing decentralizes processing power to network edge, enabling real-time AI-driven decision-making in IoT applications. In industrial automation such as robotics and rugged edge AI, real-time perception and intelligence are critical for autonomous operations. Deploying transformer-based image captioning models at the edge can enhance machine perception, improve scene understanding for autonomous robots, and aid in industrial inspection. However, these edge or IoT devices are often constrained in computational resources for physical agility, yet they have strict response time requirements. Traditional deep learning models can be too large and computationally demanding for these devices. In this research, we present findings of transformer-based models for image captioning that operate effectively on edge devices. By evaluating resource-effective transformer models and applying knowledge distillation techniques, we demonstrate inference can be accelerated on resource-constrained devices while maintaining model performance using these techniques.