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Cranfield leads military robot challenge

Thursday, 16 August 2007

Cranfield University has been shortlisted as part of a crack hi-tech team to compete in the Ministry of Defence’s first Grand Challenge, a national competition to design an autonomous robot that can identify, monitor and report military threats in urban areas. Cranfield has a well-established history in the production of world-leading technologies for the defence industries and is also a long-time collaborator with the MoD. Working under Team Stellar, a cross section of Cranfield academics will be joined by local technology firms Blue Bear Systems Research (Bedford), Marshall Specialist Vehicles (Cambridge) and Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems (Luton) as well as Stellar Research and TRW Conekt. Together with the Comp-etition of Ideas, the Grand Challenge is a key driver in the MoD’s Defence Technology Strategy and offers a unique opening into the UK defence market for new suppliers and investors. Twenty-three teams applied to enter, ranging from established defence contractors to universities and SMEs, before being whittled down to 14. The winning entry will be awarded the R J Mitchell Trophy in recognition of the WWII fighter plane and the MoD is already indicating that it may fund development of the proposed technology. At the shortlist announce-ment, Lord Drayson, Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support, said: “These progr-ammes of fixed duration will allow the MoD to quickly assess concepts with practical and tangible evidence. “Not all ideas will succeed but those that do will be in a better state to transfer quickly to our forces.” The teams have just 12 months to carry out the ambitious task. Team Stellar will produce a system comprising two unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). They will converge at Copehill Down training facility in Wiltshire next summer for the grand finale where the robots will be judged on tackling four common threats including a road-side bomb, marksman from a window, a group of armed military personnel and an armed vehicle with a rocket launcher. Dr Julia Richardson, director of Stellar Research Services and leader of Team Stellar, said: “The Grand Challenge is really exciting. As a research company we never get the chance to put our money where our mouth is, so we have a great opportunity to show what we can do.” Dr Toby Breckon, Cranfield lecturer in computer vision and image processing, said: “This competition offers the opportunity to tackle threats faced by our Armed Forces on a daily basis. It is crucial that safer and more effective ways of identifying dangerous urban environments are developed to aid troops. “We have an excellent team spanning a wide range of organisations. I hope that by fusing knowledge and techn-ologies from both academia and business we will not only win, but provide innovative solutions to real-life challenges.” Cranfield’s input to Team Stellar will involve the Applied Mathematics and Computing Group focusing on creating computer-based software for automatic target recognition. The Guidance and Control Group at Cranfield University, Shrivenham, will be working to co-ordinate vehicle guidance and execution. Blue Bear Systems Research is designing both UAV systems and associated control and avionics systems. Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems is involved with overall system integration and development of the project’s ground control station. Stellar Research Services will be leading project manage-ment, while Marshall SV will provide the UGV and TRW Conekt will be providing headway, obstacle and threat sensors for the UGV. Leading UK technology consultant, Cambridge-based Sagentia – formerly Scientific Generics – was also shortlisted for the Grand Challenge.

 

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