Four Australian universities are to join Boston University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States in a project to develop the next generation of autonomous vehicles for use by Defence.
Minister for Defence Industry, Melissa Price said autonomous capability was a key priority for Defence because of its important safety and efficiency benefits.
“Autonomous vehicles help keep troops a safe distance from harm and present solutions to a range of problems faced by our military personnel in the field,” Ms Price said.
The University of Melbourne, Macquarie University, University of NSW and Queensland University of Technology will join with Boston and MIT to explore whether the way in which living creatures receive, process and react to environmental and contextual information can be applied to robots.
“This project is aimed at developing a truly autonomous vehicle capable of learning, adapting to unexpected situations and pursuing complex goals in dynamic and challenging environments,” Ms Price said.
“It is a tremendous opportunity for our scientists to collaborate with their counterparts in the United States on research that is vital for the future defence and security of Australia.”
She said the funding for the project would come from the Australian multidisciplinary university research initiative (AUSMURI) program which supports Australian universities which are part of successful bids in the US MURI process.
Designed to encourage collaboration between Australian universities and their US counterparts, AUSMURI provides funding of up to $1 million a year for three years, supporting research in high priority areas for Defence.
