Chimera: a block-based neural architecture search framework for event-based object detection

Event-based cameras are sensors inspired by the human eye, offering advantages such as high-speed robustness and low power consumption. Established deep learning techniques have proven effective in processing event data, but there remains a significant space of possibilities that could be further explored to maximize the potential of such combinations. In this context, Chimera is a Block-Based Neural Architecture Search (NAS) framework specifically designed for Event-Based Object Detection, aiming to systematically adapt RGB-domain processing methods to the event domain. The Chimera design space is constructed from various macroblocks, including attention blocks, convolutions, State Space Models, and MLP-mixer-based architectures, providing a valuable trade-off between local and global processing capabilities, as well as varying levels of complexity. Results on Prophesee's GEN1 dataset demonstrated state-of-the-art mean Average Precision (mAP) while reducing the number of parameters by 1.6 × and achieving a 2.1 × speed-up. The project is available at: https://github.com/silvada95/Chimera.