MIRA gets defence cash for driverless vehicles
Cash to develop navigation system
TECHNOLOGY for driverless military vehicles is to be developed at Horiba MIRA thanks to an £845,000 grant from the Ministry of Defence.
The cash will be used to develop a navigation system for driverless vehicles which doesn’t involve satellites. Most driverless vehicles being developed use some form of satellite navigation.
But MIRA is working on a system called ATLAS that uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to avoid the problem of satellite signals being blocked by interference, trees or buildings.
MIRA engineers say the technology operates in the same way a human driver uses a map.
The grant will be used to create advanced prototypes. The prototypes will be tested at Horiba MIRA and on military sites.
Andy Maloney, chief engineer for defence and unmanned solutions at Horiba MIRA said: “The AI technology we are developing is the first of its kind and provides a whole new level of autonomy for vehicles where they can perceive the environment, navigate their surroundings and manoeuvre without the need for external assistance from systems such as GPS or GNSS.
“Winning the final phase of the project means we can bridge the gap between research and actual adoption of the technology through producing advanced prototypes and proving the capability on key MoD platforms.
The stakeholder support and funding from the Ministry of Defence and Horiba MIRA enables us to maximise future benefits to the UK defence sector and realise the export potential of the technology.”