Recherche

The team, composed of Thales UK, the University of Reading, the University of Bristol, Ryland Research, Carvec and STEMNET (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Network), was given this award for making the best use of talent, innovation and imagination across industry, academia and education.

Following two weeks of proving trials, technical presentations and equipment demonstrations at the MoD's Copehill Down Village in Wiltshire, the 11 teams that have been taking part in the Grand Challenge came together for the award ceremony. The Thales Team, with its two Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) and two Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), was immensely proud to receive the ‘National Talent' trophy, having fielded the largest and most diverse team in the challenge, pulling together SMEs, universities and schools, along with various parts of Thales UK's business areas.

One of the stated key aims of the MoD Grand Challenge was to find new ideas and innovation and to provide an opening into the UK defence market for new suppliers and investors. The Thales Team demonstrated a real commitment to this through the complex composition of its team.

The MoD has been running the Grand Challenge initiative since March 2007, inviting industry and academia to join forces and work together for a common goal - to develop innovative autonomous solutions to detect, identify, monitor and report a range of military threats with the ultimate aim of supporting and protecting the UK armed forces in urban environments.

T3's solution integrated a number of unmanned air and ground platforms with innovative sensors into a total system capability. The platforms included two small helicopters, which housed communications equipment, cameras (day and thermal) and laser range finders. Two small tracked vehicles housing similar capability supported the air platforms, while carrying additional payloads such as navigation sensors, GPS and collision avoidance equipment.

Using the information collected from the various sensors and data on the UAVs and UGVs, T3's newly developed software analysed the data and applied image recognition techniques to generate a set of reports, detailing the positions of identified threats.

T3's approach to the Grand Challenge was simple - demonstrate that industry both large and small, working with schools and academia can work together to solve even the most complex of problems. Using the investment potential of industry and the expertise of academia through open relationships T3 has demonstrated that real innovation can be unlocked through good team work and an open mind.

T3 team leader and programme manager Kieran Sloyan, a recent graduate from Thales UK's Land & Joint Systems business, says: "Our success in the Grand Challenge reflects our strong team, concept and technology. Thales UK's domain experience as one of the UK's leading land systems integrators gave us a firm grounding in the integration of complex systems and sensors, and the invaluable input from the universities and SMEs made us a strong team. We each brought different skills and ideas."

Alex Dorrian, CEO of Thales UK, says: "We felt that it was important for us as a business to get involved with the MoD's Grand Challenge. Land systems are one of the com­pany's key strengths and an area where we have worked closely with the MoD for many years, including in the delivery of a number of key Urgent Operational Requirements. However, for us the project was more than just an engineering challenge, it was about working creatively, using the skills of not only Thales but also universities, schools and SMEs - and this proved one of the most enjoyable and rewarding elements of the challenge. Also, as a large engineering company we feel that it is important to support such activities that encourage innovation and stimulate interest and excitement around science, engineering and technology."

The Thales Team consisted of:

Thales UK - A small number of employees from Thales UK's Land & Joint Systems business in Wells and Staines, and Thales UK's Air Defence business in Belfast were the systems integrating authority within the team and the supplier of specialist new sensors. Thales UK also provided the mechanical design solution to enable the component parts to physically work together. Thales UK's Research & Technology facility, based in Reading, provided specialist sensors and were responsible for the software that enabled the systems to work together.

University of Reading - Seven undergraduate students from the University of Reading's Cybernetics department have provided the software for platform autonomy, such as vehicle navigation, route programming and collision avoidance for both the UAVs and the UGVs. The youngsters also physically built the platforms, under the guidance of Thales UK as systems integrator.

Cybernetics is the application of systems engineering as applied to machine intelligence, and the University of Reading is the UK Centre of Excellence for such research.

University of Bristol - Two post-graduate research assistants from the Vision & Processing department of the University of Bristol have developed the threat-detection and recognition software for use of the UGVs.

CARVEC - CARVEC, an SME from Hull, provided the flight-stabilisation system (hardware and software) for the UAVs. This enables the UAVs to fly in adverse weather conditions, including high winds.

Ryland Research - Ryland Research, an SME from Borden in Hampshire, provided the UGV chassis. With considerable experience of competing in Robot Wars Ryland Research's robust chassis was invaluable to providing an all-terrain vehicle.

STEMNET (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Network) - STEMNET supported The Thales Team Schools Challenge, which was run in parallel to the main MoD Challenge to encourage young people to see science and engineering as exciting, and to draw on their uninhibited innovative ideas. Forty schools participated in the Schools Challenge, culminating in the final, held during the Farnborough Air Show.

For more information on the MoD's Grand Challenge please see

http://www.science.mod.uk/Engagement/Grand_Challenge/Grand_challenge.aspx  

About Thales and Thales UK

Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide. Thales' leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the group's civil and military businesses develop in parallel and share a common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. The group builds its growth on its unique multi-domestic strategy based on trusted partnerships with national customers and market players, while leveraging its global expertise to support local technology and industrial development. Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with 2007 revenues in excess of £8.3 bn.

Thales UK employs 9,000 staff based at more than 50 locations. In 2007 Thales UK's revenues were over £1.2 bn.

Press contact:

Thales UK
Kathryn Bell
Tel: +44 1932 824832
Mob: +44 7813 903274