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Technology is a key battleground for companies hoping to win lucrative contracts with the Armed Forces.

The University of Manchester team

And with British troops frequently operating abroad in towns and villages in Iraq and Afghanistan, remote surveillance is crucial if they're to avoid putting lives at risk.

With this in mind, the Ministry of Defence has set potential suppliers a unique challenge: 鈥榯o develop autonomous aerial and ground vehicles capable of detecting and identifying threats鈥�. In other words, robots.

Now, after months of hard work, the Grand Final has arrived and a team from the University of Manchester is ready go to war this weekend on Salisbury Plain.

Helicopter

The team has developed two machines under the name 鈥楾umbleweed鈥�; one that rolls along the ground and another that takes off and hovers like a helicopter.

Powered by mobile phone batteries, their 鈥榚ye in the sky鈥� goes airbone using a unique array of six helicopter rotors. With a flying time of 20 mins, it is designed to seek out roadside bombs, weapons and armed militia and beam images back to base. It鈥檚 even small enough to fly through doorways.

It鈥檚 completely autonomous which means it doesn鈥檛 need to be remote controlled. And it鈥檚 cheap enough to be expendable.

Team leader Dr Bill Crowther said that while it usually takes several years and millions of pounds to develop these types of autonomous robots, the Tumbleweed helicopter has been developed in Manchester in less than a year.

Rover: Tumbleweed's ground robot

鈥淎 key challenge is making the technology sufficiently autonomous that it does not require high levels of skill and attention to operate it,鈥� he said.

鈥淐urrent systems often take two or three specially trained soldiers to operate them and can鈥檛 be used by front line troops where the information is most needed.鈥�

Dr Crowther added that with the development of a structural shell, the Tumbleweed helicopter would even be able to roll along the ground and up walls! It will also be able to land and take off and be able to 鈥榩erch and stare鈥� from suitable urban structures.

Also being put through its paces will be Tumbleweed鈥檚 ground vehicle which is designed to navigate cluttered urban environments with an onboard surveillance camera.

Challenge

This weekend, the two robots will be called into action at Copehill Down army training centre in Wiltshire where they will be required to tackle an array of challenged tasks.

Dr Brian Crowther

Around a dozen robots will be put through their paces during the Grand Final, with around ten people from the Tumbleweed team having travelled to Wiltshire for the contest.
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The winner of the competition will win the R J Mitchell Trophy, named after the 鈥榝ather of the Spitfire鈥� WWII fighter plane, and also further funding from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to refine their design.