Design challenge unites industry and academia
A
Cranfield University product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 8, 2008
Cranfield University has joined with Blue Bear Systems Research, Selex Galileo, Marshall SDG, Stellar Research Services and TRW Conekt to form Team Stellar in the MoD Grand Challenge.
Eleven teams of expert engineers will go head-to-head this month in the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) first Grand Challenge - a national competition to design an autonomous systems that can identify, monitor and report military threats in urban areas.
Engineering experts from Cranfield University, Blue Bear Systems Research, Selex Galileo, Marshall SDG, Stellar Research Services and TRW Conekt have all joined forces to form Team Stellar, representing an eclectic mix of academia and business.
Having completed 12 months of design and testing, the team is now ready to unleash three autonomous robots, consisting of a high-level unmanned air vehicle (UAV) spanning 3.6m and weighing 6.2kg, a 1m low-level UAV and a 1.5m unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).
The robots will be judged in a series of tests over the two-week competition, based at Copehill Down training facility in Wiltshire.
Using optical, radar and thermal imagery for automated threat detection, they will tackle common threats faced by the armed forces including a roadside bomb, marksman from a window, group of armed military personnel and an armed vehicle with rocket launcher.
Dr Toby Breckon, Lecturer in Computer Vision and Image Processing, Cranfield University, said: "It is crucial that safer and more effective ways of identifying dangerous urban environments are developed to aid troops".
"Innovative robotic technology, such as what we have developed for this competition, is key to real-time threat identification and the future of UK defence".
"I hope that by fusing knowledge and technologies from both academia and business we will not only win, but provide innovative solutions to real-life challenges".
The winning entry will be awarded the RJ Mitchell Trophy in recognition of the designer of the WWII spitfire fighter plane, and the MoD is already indicating that it may fund the development of the proposed technology.
Cranfield's input to Team Stellar includes the creation of computer based software for automatic target recognition and co-ordination of vehicle guidance and execution.
Blue Bear Systems Research has designed both UAV systems and their associated control and avionics systems, and Selex Galileo is involved with overall system integration and development of the project's ground control station.
Team Leader Stellar Research Services is undertaking the project management, Marshall SDG has provided the UGV, and TRW Conekt has designed the route guidance, obstacle and threat sensors for the UGV.
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