UK aims to bring telexistence closer to reality

The UK MoD has unveiled an £800,000 ($1.1 million) funding injection via the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) for research into future military applications for telexistence technologies.

Nine organisations from industry and academia — such as L3Harris Technologies, TNO and Sheffield Hallam University — will work on 11 projects to accelerate development of capabilities that will physically remove military personnel and emergency workers from dangerous operating environments.

The human will remain in the loop with the ability to perform complex tasks and operate equipment from a safe distance.

Projects in Phase 1 are due to be completed by 31 May 2021 and will be demonstrated afterwards at an event in the UK.

Rob Baldock, programme manager for emerging technology at the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), said: ‘This is the culmination of several years of developing the concept of telexistence inside Dstl from the idea of combining different areas of emerging science into the concept of projecting human presence into a remote environment and immersive feedback for the operator.’

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