Teams shortlisted to do battle in robot challenge

Twelve teams from five countries have been shortlisted to compete in the first round of the MAGIC 2010 robot challenge, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, Greg Combet, announced today.

The Multi-Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC), jointly sponsored by the Defence Science & Technology Organisation and US Department of Defense, invited worldwide proposals to develop teams of fully autonomous robots for military operations.

Twenty-three entries were received from USA, Canada, Poland, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and Australia.

“The quality of the submissions was very strong and exceeded our expectations. Consequently, twelve teams have been selected to progress their projects to the next stage of the challenge,” said Mr Combet.

“Ten of these teams will receive $US50,000 to develop their proposals instead of the original plan to fund only five teams. The remaining two teams have the opportunity to self-fund their projects.” Of the twelve teams, five are from the United States, four from Australia, and one each from Canada, Japan and Turkey.

“Most of the teams comprise partnerships between universities and companies that are at the forefront of robotics technology, such as Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, General Dynamics, Thales Australia and the University of Adelaide.”

The shortlisted teams will be reduced to five in June 2010 when each of these five finalists will receive an additional $US50,000 to complete their projects for the Grand Challenge Event to be held in South Australia in November 2010.

“I congratulate the shortlisted teams and wish them success on the second phase of the competition,” Mr Combet said. The aim of the MAGIC initiative is to develop robots capable of operating fully autonomously in conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, making such operations safer for military personnel.

SHORTLISTED TEAMS TO BE FUNDED FOR MAGIC 2010

Australia

1: MAGICIAN, University of Western Australia (Robotics and Automation Laboratory, Adaptive Systems Research Group), Flinders University (Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Laboratories), Edith Cowan University (Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering Cluster), Thales Australia (D3S&A, Naval Division), ILLIARC Pty Ltd.

2: STRATEGIC ENGINEERING (an Australian robotics company specialising in advanced sensing, vision systems, autonomous vehicles, industrial robotics and field robotic platforms), with the University of Adelaide.

Canada

3 : NORTHERN HUNTERS – Canada (Comprising Amtech Aeronautical Ltd, Scientific Instrumentation Ltd, Royal Military College of Canada.

Japan

4: CHIBA TEAM/Chiba University – Japan (Comprising Chiba University and Analytical Software Inc.)

Turkey

5: CAPPADOCIA – Turkey (Comprising ASELSAN (Turkish military electronics company) with Bilkent University, Bogazici University, Middle East Technical University from Turkey, and Ohio State University (Control & Intelligent Transportation Research Lab) of the USA.

USA

6: RASR - Reconnaissance and Autonomy for Small Robots Team - USA (Lead: Robotics Research, LLC; with Industry Partners: General Dynamics Robotic Systems, Qinetic-NA, Del Services, Cedar Creek Defence University, Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, University of Michigan.)

7: TEAM CORNELL, Cornell University – USA (School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.)

8: TEAM MICHIGAN - USA (Comprising SoarTech with research support from the University of Michigan.)

9: VIRGINIA TECH – USA (Department of Mechanical Engineering).

10: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA – USA (With BAE Systems as auxiliary team

members.)

Teams shortlisted for self-funding

Australia

11 NUMINENCE - Australia (Comprising Numinence Pty Ltd and LaTrobe University with support from ten small companies).

12 UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES - Australia (Teaming with Kumamoto University, Japan, and University of Western Sydney).