News

Edith Cowan University (ECU) scientists have been awarded $150,000 to work alongside leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies by the State Government to design technology that teaches defence force robots to read hand gestures.

Announced by Defence Industry Minister Paul Papalia, Motium is part of the team to support research into dynamic two-way communication using kinetic inputs between human operators and robots.

A Motium TUFF PC is a key part of robot dog Spot (care of Chironix), and is responsible for interfacing the communication protocols between Spot and a pair of AR glasses (from Agili8) that are worn by an operator using hand gestures to control him.

Motium is proud to be working in collaboration with skilled teams from ECU, The University of Western Australia, Chironix and Agili8 to support this research aiming to solve real-world defence problems.

Motium is excited to be able to contribute our rugged tech TUFF PC to this unique research aimed at bolstering Western Australia’s defence capabilities.

This grant is part of a total of $1.19 million that has been made available through the Collaborative Research Grant program which is part of the WA Government’s investment into defence research.

A total of eight projects were selected for funding, with the 2022 application round being the most competitive in the Collaborative Research Grant program’s history.

Read more about this project on the ECU website, or Check out our Defence page here!