SSM – “Roboik” Unmanned and Autonomous Land Vehicles Contest
A meeting was held recently in order to give information on the “Roboik - Unmanned and Autonomous Land Vehicles Contest” and it was organized by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) with the approach that the number of unmanned and autonomous land vehicles will increase within a short term. It was held with the participation of the Undersecretary for Defense Industries Prof. İsmail Demir at SSM facilities.
Addressing the participants at the meeting, Mr. Bilal Aktaş, the Industrialization Department Head of SSM, said that they made great efforts to establish a national infrastructure as the Undersecretariat and that they organized such contests to accelerate the nationalization process in the defense industry by revealing innovative ideas and benefiting from them. Mr. Aktaş also conveyed his thanks to the Undersecretary Prof. İsmail Demir for his leading and guiding role at every step of this contest from the idea stage to execution.
Following the presentation of Mr. Bilal Aktaş, the Head of the Industrialization Department, Undersecretary for Defense Industries Prof. İsmail Demir addressed the participants and said that they organized the “Roboik” contest for the first time and added: “This contest is being held as a result of thorough and rigorous analysis of our country’s current conditions and vision for the future and in consequence of a long-term planning. We want to motivate our young people with this contest. We believe that Roboik Unmanned and Autonomous Land Vehicles Design Competition will bring out new success stories. Thus, the dynamism of the institutions and organizations leading the sector will increase, new approaches and unique designs will reveal, and the idea that these designs can turn out to be products rather than just a technological demonstration will increase enthusiasm for both participants and sector players.”
Roboik Contest, Sparking This Year’s Designs, Fueling Next Year’s Competitive Prototypes
Saying that the Roboik contest is a contest to be evaluated in the short and long terms, Prof. Demir continued, “We will have an interface that allows our researchers, designers, universities, private sector and of course our security forces as users to come together and to unite among one another, and this facilitates the creation of an infrastructure that will enable us to have our say in the world of the future with Roboik. This contest, in which certain stages will be activated in certain periods, started this year with the design concept. We aimed that the participants start to reach their dreams by sketching, and we also aimed to have studies that reveal the truly visible 3-D designs. For that reason, this year we have created 2 categories in the contest and we expect contenders to design unmanned land vehicles at different scales. We have a solid reward system in place. Our first prize will be 100.000 TL, our first prize in the freeform category will be 30.000 TL, we will also have second and third place and honorable mention prizes.”
“We will continue this contest in different categories by providing different financial contributions each year with a wide range participation. Next year, this time we will activate the prototype development phase of the same contest and race the prototypes. During the prototype development phase, we will provide financial support by creating control mechanisms. Our studies are continuing rapidly, we will lead the large masses to contribute to the sector with the participation of everyone from different ages and areas, regardless of whether they are professional or not,” said Prof. Demir.
In the contest, which is planned to be organized in two categories, specifically as 3-Dimensional Model Design and Freeform, 100 thousand TL will be given to the winner of the 3-dimensional category, and 30 thousand TL will be given to the designer who places first in the freeform category.
With the ‘Unmanned and Autonomous Land Vehicles Design Contest’ to be organized under the name of ‘Roboik’, the aim is to design unmanned systems that will contribute to increasing operational capabilities both in internal security and military areas, minimizing margin of error, avoiding possible personnel casualties or reducing them to minimum level, by using advanced technologies.
The results of the contest will be announced on 12 December 2017. The deadline of the contest is 15 November 2017. In addition, it is aimed that the contest formats regarding air, underwater and surface vehicles will be announced within the year and such contests are planned to be realized in 2018.
