DASA Competition: Telexistence


This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition, run on behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), aims to develop and demonstrate the components of a telexistence solution to the defence and security community. There is the potential for this competition (Phase 1) to be followed by a second competition (Phase 2) which will invite proposals to tailor their telexistence systems to meet a defence and security use case.

£500k is available for this Phase 1 to fund multiple proposals, with projects completing by 31 May 2021 and showcasing their innovation at a demonstration event to be held in the UK. We anticipate bids to be no more than £100k, but we have not set an upper threshold for the amount of proposals which may be funded as part of this Phase 1 competition. Please discuss with your Innovation Partner if your proposal is over £100k. This call closes at midday GMT on Thursday 19 November 2020.

Telexistence

A telexistence capability can be defined as a system, or a system of systems, which allows a human user to operate in an environment without physically being there. This could be achieved by using a real-time, remotely operated avatar which relies on the integration of:

  • Telepresence: a visual-audio solution which enables a human operator to experience the sensation of self-presence in a remote environment
  • Haptic feedback: an immersive solution which transmits sensory information from the remote environment to the human operative
  • Robotics: a manoeuvrable solution which enables a human operator to interact with the remote environment

This competition seeks to assess proposals from each of the three technology groupings (challenge areas), but submissions that combine two or more of these challenge areas are also encouraged.

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Source: GOV.UK