An Australian team involving the University of Western Australia and Thales Australia has successfully participated in the Multi Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC) 2010.
Team MAGICian comprised Thales Australia, the University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University and Flinders University, and was the only Australian team to reach the finals.
The final challenge involved demonstrating the use of multi-vehicle robotic teams executing an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission in a dynamic urban environment.
“A major challenge in the future will be the integration of new capabilities into a highly complex, networked, information-rich environment,” said Chris Jenkins, Thales Australia’s CEO.
“The development of technologies that can act autonomously, yet still be integrated into a human-centric command and control structure, will have very significant implications for future military operations.
“Programs like MAGIC 2010 help us explore these future requirements, understand evolving operational concepts, and support the Australian Defence Force as it adopts these technologies over the coming years.”
MAGIC 2010 was jointly sponsored by the Australian and US Departments of Defence to attract innovative proposals from worldwide research organisations to develop next-generation fully autonomous ground vehicle systems that can be deployed effectively in military operations and civilian emergency situations.
The awards were judged by a panel of international experts in the field of robotics, military operations, academia, and defence R&D.