The Australian armed forces is seeking to add military robot technology to its inventory and so has launched a high-value competition for new, 21st century military robot designs. Once in service, these robots would be deployed to urban areas and work alongside military personnel, hopefully mitigating casualty levels in unpredictable and potentially risky combat situations.

Beyond working in towns and cities, those behind the Australia military robot vision propose that, one day, these robots can also serve on the front line, where they can work to suppress enemy forces.

Military Robotics

The military robotics competition is the result of a collaboration between the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, and the US DoD (Department of Defence).

The Australian government's ambition is to create what it terms an "intelligent and fully autonomous system", which can be used to gather intelligence in hostile urban conflict zones. These robots would not be equipped with any form of self-defence, but would carry out a portion of the "dirty work" currently undertaken by actual troops.

Military Robot Technology

Designers wanting to submit new military robot technology designs can apply for grants from a overall allocation of just under £1 million, for research purposes. Of those that apply, five will be selected for the next round, which will take place at a Land Warfare Conference to be held in Brisbane in November 2010.

Prior to this, though, the designers will need to show that their military robot technologies are suitable for the required tasks, and will get a chance to do this at an Australian armed forces facility, where a number of prominent defence experts will gather to assess them.

The name of this competition is MAGIC - an acronym of Multi-Autonomous Ground-robotic international Challenge - and it was launched by Greg Combet -Australia's Minister for Defense Personnel , Materiel and Science.

"While remote-controlled robots are being deployed in operational areas, we need smart, intelligent and fully autonomous systems that can take over from humans in conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions", Combet explained.

"The ultimate aim is to make these operations much safer for our military personnel, leaving the robots to carry out the dirty and dangerous work."