Renesas Electronics Corporation has completed acquisition of Irida Labs, a Greek firm specialising in embedded AI software for visual perception. The deal, announced by the Tokyo-based semiconductor supplier, is intended to accelerate the development of vision-based solutions for smart cities, industrial robotics, and traffic monitoring.

The acquisition allows Renesas to integrate Irida Labs’ “PerCV.ai” software with its own microcontrollers and microprocessors. This combination will enable edge AI processing of visual data from cameras and sensors on the device rather than in the cloud. This will reduce latency and improve security for applications such as infrastructure monitoring and automated retail analytics.

Renesas plans to incorporate the newly acquired tools into its “Renesas 365” platform, a cloud-based environment for electronics system development. The integration aims to simplify the process for developers to train and deploy AI models for use in safety systems, traffic management, and industrial inspection.

The two companies previously collaborated as partners, but the acquisition brings the software expertise in-house to allow for more tightly integrated hardware-software solutions. The move is part of Renesas’ broader strategy to expand its presence in the intelligent device market.

“This acquisition accelerates our efforts to simplify how intelligence is designed and deployed at the edge,” said Gaurang Shah, Vice President at Renesas. “Developers can rapidly develop, train and deploy edge AI systems without deep AI knowledge.”