UK awards £800,000 in telexistence grants

The UK Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has announced £800,000 in funding to develop telexistence technologies to reduce the risks associated with military personnel, emergency workers and civilians operating in dangerous environments.

The Telexistence competition aims to develop technologies that ultimately allow a human operator to perform complex tasks and operate equipment from a safe distance.

Nine organisations, undertaking eleven different projects, will share the funding through the DASA Telexistence Themed Competition, run on behalf of the Ministry of Defence’s Chief Scientific Adviser and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), and managed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).

A telexistence capability is defined as a system, or a system of systems, which allows a human user to experience, interact with, and operate in an environment without physically being there. The human operator remains in the loop.

The funding recipients are:

• Veolia Nuclear Solutions

• Cyberselves Universal Ltd

• Digital Kinematics Ltd

• Createc

• L3Harris Technologies

• Holoxica Limited

• University of Leeds

• TNO

• Sheffield Hallam University.