Strategic Elements' subsidiary 'Stealth Technologies' says it will design and deliver an autonomous drone carrying vehicle that automates detection and sensing of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents.
The company will collaborate with Defence Science Technology Group (DSTG) and the University of WA to build the solution and conduct a live demonstration to Army.
The Western Australian Defence Science Centre has agreed to part fund the collaborative work.
The company says the autonomous vehicle will carry drones and sensors into a target environment keeping humans at a safe distance, and will rapidly traverse the target area using sensors to map and/or monitor the location of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) sources.
The collaboration will result in a live demonstration of the Autonomous CBRN Vehicle to Defence (both DSTG and Army) and investigate advanced manufacturing capabilities and facilities for production in WA.
Other outcomes include the potential to leverage the autonomous capability to other ADF problems – for example other resupply, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance use cases.
"The Autonomous CBRN Vehicle has the ability to mitigate certain risks that our Australian Defence personnel face in CBRN environments whilst increasing the efficiency and accuracy of CBRN detection and sensing," Managing Director Charles Murphy said. "I am proud of our Stealth team, the AxV Autonomous Platform is gaining significant credibility and trust amongst some very serious players looking for autonomous solutions. We see significant commercial opportunities to build its value across multiple sectors such as security, defence, mining and logistics".
The Company's AxV autonomous vehicle platform is currently deployed in perimeter security applications through the Stealth ASV (Autonomous Security Vehicle).
The CBRN collaboration will leverage existing IP, and collaborative work conducted with organisations such as Honeywell, WA Department of Justice, UWA, CSIRO and Planck AeroSystems.