UK's MoD Grand Challenge inciting robo-warfare next summ

Engadget are reporting this... anyone we know in the running?

UKs MoD Grand Challenge inciting robo-warfare next summer

Posted Jul 31st 2007 1:48PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Robots

While these days robotics are no stranger to the battlefield, the UK Ministry of Defence is hoping to take things a step further with its Grand Challenge competition, which aims to bring autonomous, information-gathering robots to urban warfare situations. Fourteen teams have been picked as finalists, and the true test will come next summer when the robots roll into Copehill Down, an urban warfare training center built during the Cold War, and duke it out with mock targets. The MoDs hope is for a robot to be able to identify potential snipers, enemy vehicles and other human threats, with a minimum of human guidance, and then report that information back to ground troops gearing up for an assault. Approaches to the challenge include miniature unmanned planes and copters equipped with high-def cameras, and combination setups that include ground units with radar and thermal detection along with aerial units. Points will be awarded for accuracy of recon and autonomy, and the winning team will receive a fancy trophy and military funding. The robots are in it for the glory and the hefty retirement benefits.

Hi Rob,

This looks like a competition for professional teams to me. A recent story said that 6 teams had received funding from the UK Ministry of Defence and 8 more were entering with private funding. Some of these are:


- Barnard Microsystems which will use an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV ) it has designed to survey oil pipelines in remote areas.

-Team Dragonfly, a privately funded group has proposed a 2m-long, lightweight, hovering vehicle equipped with a zoom lens and with thermal or infrared imaging.

-Team Stellar has proposed a multiple vehicle approach consisting of two different UAVs and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).

-Swarm Systems proposes eight to 10 dinner-plate sized quad-rotor helicopters which would be able to fly in and out of buildings.

The winner will not necessarily be the team that identifies all of the targets correctly because a remote-controlled vehicle will lose points for needing input from a human operator.

Something that is completely autonomous - you just launch it; it goes off, does its own thing and comes back and says unequivocally X, Y and Z are targets - would score maximum points, say the organisers.

The winner gets a trophy and funding to develop their machine(s). Looks like a big money professional effort to me.

A bit more:

Flying robot to fight guerrillas

6 days ago

A flying robot which can identify snipers and bombs in built-up areas is being developed by scientists as a future weapon against guerrilla fighters.

The University of Portsmouth is creating the device with the aim of the project being commissioned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Electronics and engineering specialists in aerodynamic modelling and robotics are working on the flying robot with development firm Ant Scientific.

They have already entered an MoD competition called Grand Challenge, aimed at encouraging companies to develop robots to be used on battlefields around the world.

The universitys Team Locust now has 12 months to complete the robot in time for the final competition in August 2008, when it will be put through its paces in a mocked-up war scene on Salisbury Plain.

Charlie Baker-Wyatt, manager of the universitys defence and homeland security research section, said: We are fighting ideologies espoused by very clever extremists. They are often one step ahead of the game and not constrained by a public purse, health and safety, environmental or legal concerns or even their fellow human beings.

A total of 23 teams have entered the competition and 16 were shortlisted. The final will see them compete to find targets at Copehill Down, the Armys urban warfare training facility.

The winner will be the device which best protects lives by accurately identifying threats with the minimum of human intervention.
--o0o--

University of Portsmouths defence and homeland security research section? Sounds very American to me.