Britain's Roke Manor Research has joined with Marshall Land Systems for a mobile surveillance and electronic warfare capability for Marshall's unmanned ground vehicle platforms.

The system will be demonstrated at the Defense and Security Equipment Robotics Showcase next week in London.

Roke joins a number of defense technology developers in supporting Marshall to develop a sophisticated, market-leading unmanned ground vehicle.

Providing standoff surveillance capabilities, the enhanced UGV will give troops advanced surveillance support, particularly when performing dismounted patrols. The new UGV system reduces exposure of personnel to risk from snipers when searching buildings, roads and vehicles for threats such as improvised explosive devices.

Synapse, Roke's intelligent navigation system for unmanned systems, will be integrated into Marshall's two UGV platforms -- Questar and Trakkar. It will allow the platforms to roam beyond the operator's line of site as it intelligently optimizes its given route plan to avoid obstacles and perform its mission while minimizing power use and maximizing survivability, Roke said.

Roke Manor's communications EW system, Resolve, will be integrated into Marshall's Trakkar platform to provide additional Istar capability.

Using an unmanned system to carry an EW man-pack allows the sensor to be located in regions that would normally present too high a risk to personnel.

"Our expertise in developing UGVs has seen us develop increasingly agile systems that significantly reduce the weight burden of dismounted troops," said Andy Wallace, program manager at Marshall Land Systems.

"Working with our partners such as Roke will enable us to offer the most advanced systems on the market, going beyond the weight burden to reducing the exposure of military personnel in hostile environments."

Added Paul Webb, Unmanned Systems Business Sector manager, at Roke Manor Research: "This partnership is an excellent example of what can be achieved when leading product innovators work together. Between us all we have created a user-friendly and highly intelligent asset that offers practical and effective support in the battlefield."

Marshall Land Systems has headquarters in Cambridge, England. It provides an integrated specialist approach to the design, supply and through-life capability management of its own and other products in the military equipment, government non-military security and deployed infrastructure sectors.

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