Combet unveils MAGIC military robot comp

Posted 1 hour 52 minutes ago 
Updated 1 hour 48 minutes ago

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200802/r227802_905882.jpg" width="285" height="410" alt="The US military's SWORD robot" title="The US military's SWORD robot" style="font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Bitstream Vera Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; word-wrap: break-word; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; cursor: url(http://www.abc.net.au/news/img/2007/zoom_in.cur), pointer; " />

The competition aims to fill the need for an autonomous robot operating in urban environments. (wikipedia.org)

The Australian Government has launched a multi-million dollar competition to build the next generation of military robots.

Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science Minister Greg Combet announced the international competition today.

The Multi-Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC), is being organised by Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) in partnership with the US Department of Defence.

Mr Combet said the competition aims to fill the need for an autonomous robot operating in urban environments.

"This competition aims to attract the most innovative solutions from around the world to address a technology gap currently faced by coalition f