The UK’s Systems Engineering for Autonomous Systems (SEAS) Defence Technology Centre has released details of its planned 2006 study activities, listing 62 projects worth a combined £10 million ($17.5 million), writes Craig Hoyle.
Formed last February by the UK Ministry of Defence and industry, the SEAS is to exploit collectively new technologies in the unmanned vehicles sector. Involving the UK’s Defence Science & Technology Laboratory, BAE Systems, CAE, MBDA, Roke Manor Research, Rolls-Royce, Selex and Smiths Aerospace, plus small and medium-sized enterprises and 11 academic institutions, the potentially £60 million initiative is funded 50:50 by the MoD and industry. An initial three-year effort worth £30 million has been funded to date, with work to start in March 2006.
The first-year studies are divided into six activities, each worth £50,000-500,000: algorithms and architectures; mission planning and decision making; sensor exploitation; communications and control; propulsion, power generation and energy management; and systems engineering. Initial work will include £400,000 projects conducted by Heriot-Watt and Bath universities into adaptive navigation andmission planning technologies; small gas-turbine research tobe undertaken by R-R and Oxford University; and a fuel-cell power study contracted to Imperial College.
The £32.4 million Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment programme is on track to receive a launch contract late this year, BAE strategic business development director and SEAS chairman Simon Jewell told RUSI’s Unmanned Systems 2005 conference in London.
Source: Flight International
