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Robotics Technology Consortium Awards Second Round Research Projects

Universities, Research Labs, and Companies Create Ground Vehicle Technologies

Ann Arbor, MI., September 2, 2009 – The Robotics Technology Consortium, Inc. (RTC) today announced that the Government has awarded nine winners of its second round of projects totaling $3.62 million.  These teams will undertake the research required to further develop innovative technologies that add capabilities to the currently deployed unmanned ground vehicle and enable future unmanned ground systems.

The winning team leads and projects are:

  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory –  “Autonomous Stair Climbing for Portable  Unmanned Ground Vehicles”
  • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – “Fast 3D Reconstruction and Visualization for Explosive Ordnance Disposal for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (EOD for UGVs)”
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) –  “Rapid 3D Object Visualization for Mobile Robots”
  • Photon-X –  “Miniature 3D Spatial Phase Sensors”
  • Vecna Corporation – “Automated Tool Change”
  • AnthroTronix, Inc. – “Instrumented Glove-Based System (iGlove-3) for Controlling High-DOF Manipulators”
  • General Dynamics Robotic Systems – “Untitled Proposal”
  • TORC Technologies – “Autonomous Remote Control HMMWV (ARCH)”
  • iRobot Corporation – “Autonomous: Supervisory Control with Enhanced Situational Awareness”

In May 2008, the RTC entered into a $170M Other Transactions Agreement (OTA) with the Department of Defense to better enable non-traditional defense contractors to undertake technical projects on behalf of the Government.  Since then, the Government has awarded a total of 16 projects, worth $8,371,882.00 involving 35 member companies (15 non-traditional), universities, and non-profit organizations.

“Winners in this second round of funding includes universities, research labs, and companies,” said Ellen Purdy, Enterprise Director, OSD/Joint Ground Robotics. “It is great to see the entire community working together to advance the field and get technology into the hands of our warfighters.”

“It took only 107 days from the request for project proposals posting on our web pages to having the entire set of winners under contract”, said Helen Greiner the elected President of the RTC, “and we are very proud of our ability to support small research efforts rapidly and cost-effectively.”

Membership to the Robotics Technology Consortium is open to U.S. based companies, non-profits, and universities.

 
About Robotics Technology Consortium

The Robotics Technology Consortium (RTC) is a non-profit, industry organization created in 2008 to speed the creation and deployment of ground robotics technology for the Defense Department and other Government organizations. The consortium was established to meet a need identified by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (OSD/JGRE).  The RTC currently has a membership of over 160 large and small commercial companies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations. The RTC seeks to solicit and engage companies and organizations that may not have historically performed work for the Defense Department and other Government organizations in addition to traditional defense contractors.

 

About NCMS

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) in Ann Arbor Michigan is the largest cross-industry collaborative R&D consortium in North America. NCMS has a 23-year track record in the management of complex, collaborative programs which deliver innovative manufacturing technology to market faster than traditional methods.  The RTC was formed as a non-profit, supporting organization of NCMS, who also serves as the RTC administrative agent.

For more information, visit http://www.ncms.org.

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