surveillance robot – Mindsheet

Mindsheet Host Official Mayor Visit

Hot on the heels of winning the Innovation of the Year Award (for our Testudo Surveillance Robot), Mindsheet were pleased to receive a visit from some local dignitaries to come and try out the winning concept for themselves.

Raglan demonstrates Testudo to the local dignitaries — Testudo is taken outside for a bit of a run around

On April 21st Mindsheet welcomed the Mayor of Havant Cllr John Smith, the Mayoress of Havant Mrs Hilary Smith, the Chairman of Hampshire County Council Cllr Michael Woodhall and Havant Borough Council’s Business Development Manager Mr Tony Lee to our office at Langstone Technology Park.

Cllr Woodhall was on a tour of local business parks and the Mayor of Havant was keen to draw our business to his attention as winner of Innovation of the Year in the News Business Awards.

Raglan demonstrate the remote control and visual display

Our guests had a tour of our office and Raglan talked them through the story of our winning robot before we headed outside for a hands-on demo of Testudo.

Our guests were so engaged in talking about the robot alongside Mindsheet’s other activities that they overran their meeting by an hour, making them very late for their next appointment!

For more information about Mindsheet’s win at the Innovation Awards, visit here.

Mindsheet Wins MOD Contract to Develop a Portable “Battle-Winning” Reconnaissance Robot

Mindsheet is pleased to announce that we have been awarded an MOD contract to develop a rugged mini-robot to act as a reconnaissance scout for troops.

Mindsheet Press Release
25 February 2009

Mindsheet is pleased to announce that we have been awarded an MOD contract by the CDE (Centre for Defence Enterprise) to develop a rugged mini-robot, named Testudo, to act as a reconnaissance scout for troops.

Originally unveiled at the MOD Grand Challenge 2008, the robot scout is a platoon level asset that supports hazardous ground manoeuvres such as early warning of threat events, clearance of hazardous ground, compounds and buildings and could even help locate enemy fire. This low cost, man portable device acts as a force multiplier that could ultimately save lives.

The £28k contract, awarded in January 2009, will enable Mindsheet to further develop the robot for field testing in March with a view to realise the production system later in 2009.

Mindsheet has already been awarded Innovation of the Year by The News, Portsmouth, for work on the robot to date.

Raglan Tribe, the Managing Director of Mindsheet, says:

“It’s a great honour to be given the opportunity to support our troops. Hopefully, this programme will allow us to get the technology in a state where it could help save lives. If so, then our job is done”.

END

Mindsheet Grand Challenge

Mindsheet have designed a cooperative set of miniature autonomous surveillance vehicles with a top speed of 35MPH in response to the MOD Grand Challenge.

You are a Company or Platoon commander about to undertake an urban operation, which might culminate in contact with enemy forces. As you enter the urban terrain your views along main streets are relatively good, but are figures in the distance hostile or not? Elsewhere, your line-of-sight is blocked by walls, buildings, shrubbery and all the usual urban clutter, such as power and telephone poles and cables. What waits at the next intersection? What lies round the corner of the next building or concealed in houses or behind rooftop parapets?

Answering those questions is the crux of the MOD Grand Challenge. In response, Mindsheet have designed a cooperative set of miniature autonomous surveillance vehicles with a top speed of 35MPH. The vehicles are based on a rugged remote control toy platform.

Each vehicle can follow a pre-assigned mission plan and then wirelessly report back detected threats that may include: snipers, IEDs, militia and technicals to a base station. This allows the remote generation of situation reports without risk to ground troops who do not have to enter the hazard zone.

IED Bomb Inspection by Mindsheet Robot
Soldiers trial the Testudo robots for Improvised Explosive Device inspection.

Raglan Tribe demonstrates the Testudo robot to Vicki Butler-Henderson from the Channel 5 Fifth Gear show

The Testudo Robot in its early stages of design

chris-burgess — Chris Burgess operating the Ground Control Station