Last weekend, teams of robots maneuvered through an urban warfare training course in southwest England, dodging sniper fire and swerving around roadside bombs. But this wasn't a new television show featuring battling bots; the robots were competing in the the U.K. Ministry of Defence's Grand Challenge, which spurred competitors to build autonomous spy robots. The ministry is eager to
develop uncrewed surveillance vehicles that can help the military identify enemy positions in a town or city before sending in troops. The MoD earmarked £4.5m to stage the contest and develop the technologies for the battlefield.... If future work goes well, the technology could be at the disposal of the army within 18 months [The Guardian].
Yesterday, the winners of the competition were announced, with inventors from the technology company Stellar Research Services taking the top prize
. Stellar's approach, called SATURN, involved three separate machines: a high-level flying robotic aircraft, ...
