Finalist in the MAGIC UGV Battle Challenge

Six high-tech teams from the U.S., Turkey, Japan and Australia have made it to the finals of the International Multi-Autonomous Ground-robotics International Challenge MAGIC 2010. The aim is to develop the next generation of fully autonomous robots that could undertake dangerous missions on the future battlefield.
The six finalists will compete at the Royal Showground in Adelaide, South Australia in November.

The six teams are: Cappadocia (Turkey), Chiba (Japan), Magician (Australia), RASR (USA), Team Michigan (USA), and University of Pennsylvania (USA).

All teams are at the forefront of robotics technology and have survived a rigorous assessment and elimination process against six other semi-finalist teams. The teams performed a range of activities to demonstrate certain capabilities including the ability to operate autonomously and to map their surroundings digitally.

They have now a few weeks to fine-tune their concepts for the grand final challenge when they will be required to field at least three robots and accomplish a complex task involving mapping and identification of threats while demonstrating a high level of autonomy between the robots.  

MAGIC is a joint initiative of Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation and the U.S. Department of Defense. The aim is to develop teams of robots which can operate autonomously on the battlefield in dangerous situations, keeping soldiers out of harm’s way.

Emotion savvy Health Care Robot

At the Research Centre for Computers, communication and Social Innovation (RECCSI) at La Trobe University in Melborne, Australia, scientists and researchers from La Trobe University Melbourne and Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Informatics in Japan develop emotionally intelligent computer systems. The research centre was launched in March 2009 in collaboration with NEC Corporation (NEC) and Kyoto University. The first project is an emotionally intelligent health care robot.

US$ 1,6 Million for BattleBot Competition Winner

The MAGIC 2010 international robotics competition, the first of its kind in the world, has been established to attract academia and industry teams to develop fully autonomous robots for military, commercial and civilian emergency applications.

Twelve of the world’s most technologically-savvy universities and several innovative companies have teamed up and are now finalists in an international robotics competition with a U.S. $1.6 million prize.

In addition to the prize money, winning teams will have a unique opportunity to work with American and Australian military organizations to develop the advanced robots that will work alongside – and instead of – Soldiers on future battlefields.