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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.

Twelve international teams have been shortlisted for MAGIC

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.

See the full media release for the list of shortlisted teams.

Media contacts:

Rod Hilton (Mr Combet) 02 6277 7620 or 0458 276 619

Stephen Butler (DSTO) 08 8259 6923 or 0418 800 323

Defence Media Liaison 02 6265 3343 or 0408 498 664

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) is part of Australia's Department of Defence. DSTO's role is to ensure the expert, impartial and innovative application of science and technology to the defence of Australia and its national interests.

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