Robotics Technology Consortium (RTC) has named the owners of its first seven robotic research programs.
The Consortium was established to meet a need identified by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (OSD/JGRE) in 2008 and currently has 158 members in its fold.
"The evaluators were very impressed by the high quality and the number of the proposals submitted by RTC members," said Ellen Purdy, Enterprise Director for Joint Ground Robotics.
Officials at the consortium said the selected companies will undertake the requisite research to sculpt frontier technologies that will significantly enhance the field and reconnoitre abilities of the currently deployed unmanned ground vehicles and will give rise to future unmanned ground systems.
"On behalf of the RTC, I would like to congratulate the winners of this round and remind members and others having an interest in robotic technology development that the next round of proposals are currently being evaluated by the government and one more round of Request for Project Proposals (RPPs) is expected to be out this year," said Helen Greiner, the elected President of the RTC.
The successful bidders in order of priority who have been assigned and approved include:
--Silvus Technologies, Inc., for the project entitled, ‘MIMO-Enabled Communication Links for NLOS Robotic Tele-operation Missions’
--Chatten Associates, for ‘Improved Depth Perception to Aid Tele-Operation’
--Sarnoff Corporation, for ‘Modular Software Architecture for Rapid Multi-robot Coordination, Mapping and Structure Characterization’
--iRobot Corporation, for ‘Sniper, Hostile Fire Defeat’
--iRobot Corporation, for "RTK-Remote Touch Kit’
--RE2, Inc., for ‘Force and Tactile Sensing Based Manipulation’
--Sarnoff Corporation, ‘Mapping in Complex Terrains’
The consortium has signed a set of contractual understanding documents with the Department of Defense (DoD) for a $ 175 million ‘Other Transactions Agreement’ (OTA) which significantly helps non-traditional defense contractors to undertake technical projects on behalf of the government.
RTC says that the first seven allotted projects are within this funding scope and are estimated currently to be slightly more than $ 4.8 million.
"The selected proposals stood out for their innovation and relevance to the needs of our deployed troops. In addition, a significant portion of the work is expected to be performed by non-traditional government contractors," said Purdy.
Also, according to recent findings, non-defense and personal robot sales are
projected to be much higher than the previously announced figure of $ 15 billion by 2015.
Vivek Naik is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Vivek's articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Stefania Viscusi