Cranfield robot wars

Cranfield University has been chosen as part of a team for the Ministry of Defence's first Grand Challenge - a national competition to design an autonomous robot that can identify and report military threats in urban areas. Team Stellar, comprised of technology firms and the university, has a year to produce two unmanned air vehicles and an unmanned ground vehicle. Next summer the robots will take on four opponents: a roadside bomb, a marksman from a window, a group of armed military personnel and an armed vehicle with a rocket launcher. Toby Breckon, lecturer in computer vision and image processing, said: "This competition offers the opportunity to tackle threats faced by our Armed Forces on a daily basis."