Cranfield involved with MOD 'Grand Challenge'

Press Release

13 Aug 2007 - Cranfield involved with MOD 'Grand Challenge'

Cranfield University has been chosen as part of a crack team for the MOD’s first ‘Grand Challenge’ – a national competition to design an autonomous robot that can identify, monitor and report military threats in urban areas.

Lord Drayson, Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support, recently announced the 14 teams chosen to take part, whittled down from a total of 23 bids. ‘Team Stellar’ combines both local technology firms, Blue Bear Systems Research (Bedford) and Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems (Luton), and Cranfield University academics in a wider partnership with Marshall SV, Stellar Research and TRW Conekt.

The team has just 12 months to carry out an ambitious task to produce their system comprising of two unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). And next summer, at Copehill Down training facility in Wiltshire, 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 Toby Breckon, 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 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 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.

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 Limited are designing both UAV systems and their associated control and avionics systems, and Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems are involved with overall system integration and development of the project’s ground control station.

Stellar Research Services will be leading project management, while Marshall SV will provide the UGV, and TRW Conekt will be providing headway, obstacle and threat sensors for the UGV.

ENDS

Further information

Cranfield University is one of Western Europe’s largest academic centres for strategic and applied research, development and design. It is unique in its entirely postgraduate focus. The university is made up of three campuses Cranfield, Silsoe and Shrivenham:

Cranfield: Cranfield School of Management, School of Applied Sciences & School of Engineering.
Silsoe:Cranfield Health. (Note: Silsoe’s Environmental Courses are now operated via School of Applied Sciences on the Cranfield Campus. Health courses will relocate over the coming 18 to 24 months).
Shrivenham: The Defence College of Management and Technology.

Details about the challenge can be found on www.challenge.mod.uk

For further information please contact:

Rebecca Edwards, Press Officer, Cranfield University, tel: +44 (0)1234 754999 or
Charlotte Kendrick, Press Officer, Cranfield University, tel: +44 (0)1234 752987

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Press release number: PR-062-07-SOE