UK seeks terrain mapping technologies

UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) has launched the third phase of its ‘Map the Gap’ competition to identify novel sensing technologies that map terrain and riverbeds for land forces. 

Announced on 21 April, the third phase of the competition is specifically looking for technologies capable of remotely assessing the “ground bearing capacity” and “key wet-gap” (riverine) measurements.  

The technologies should be deployable on UAVs to reduce risk to personnel and help to accelerate the time taken to conduct mapping surveys. 

UKDI says that terrain measurements are currently undertaken in-person, placing personnel at risk on the frontline, and potentially exposing their positions.  

UAVs with this capability could enable soldiers to identify a greater number of river crossing points suitable to move tanks, troops, and logistics during operations. 

To this end, UKDI is making up to GBP2 million (excluding VAT) available, split equally between two separate complementary requirements: 

• Measuring ground bearing capacity from a UAV 
• Conducting underwater river profiling from UAV-deployed sensors or payloads 

“A number of proposals may be funded under each challenge”, UKDI states. 

Technologies under either route will need to be modular and fit within a system of systems approach. 

In addition to this, they must be resilient to a range of weather and ground conditions, as well as be able to bypass obstacles and operate in GNSS-denied environments. 

The technologies are also expected to operate at ranges of 3-5km. 

Companies with relevant solutions are encouraged to attend a competition webinar on 5 May, and one-to-one technical sessions on 13 May. 

Following this, submissions are due by 16 May, via the UKDI Online Submission Service. 

Once selected, the participating companies are expected to develop capabilities to technological readiness level six within a 15-month period from October onwards.  

This requirement follows previous phases of UKDI’s ‘Map the Gap’ challenge, which the document says, “demonstrated clear potential for remote and autonomous systems to reduce risk to personnel”.