Competition summary: autonomy in hazardous scene assessment
Updated 25 October 2016
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1. Summary
The National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 set out the government’s approach to defence and national security for the next 5 years. This Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) themed competition is a pilot for the defence innovation initiative.
We want to use autonomous systems to assess scenes that are potentially contaminated with hazardous materials.
Currently the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence need to select, train and use staff and equipment in potentially dangerous environments in response to incidents involving hazardous materials. We want proposals for technologies that will remove the person from hazardous environments, while still assessing a scene quickly, effectively and without spreading contamination.
We want a future autonomous system to be able to map the space, indicate the presence of and confirm hazardous materials, map where hazards are, monitor changes in the environment and take samples of material to further analyse and confirm. This should all be done without the need for an expertly trained operator, and be affordable and easy to maintain. Therefore, in this CDE themed competition we’re looking for proposals for innovative enabling technologies that could develop into systems solutions to make this possible.
2. Total funding
Up to £1.5 million is available for phase 1 of this competition. We expect to fund a number of projects around £40,000 to £80,000 lasting up to 6 months, with phase-1 deliverables completed by August 2017.
Up to £1 million will be made available for phase 2 of this competition, for projects lasting no more than 12 months. Phase-2 funding will only be available to projects funded at phase 1 and will be considered on a per-project basis. Collaboration between successfully funded projects for enabling technologies at phase 1 will be encouraged to develop systems at phase 2.
3. Competition close
This competition closes on Thursday 10 November 2016 at 5pm. Proposals must be submitted to CDE online.