Last updated 19:52, Thursday, 21 August 2008

A MARYPORT firm reached the finals of a Government competition to find machinery to help save lives in urban war situations.

Moon Buggy, on the Solway Industrial Estate, is a branch of Smith Engineering. Working with a company called Silicone Valley, Kingston University and Bruton School for Girls, it came up with a robotic machine that could go into a built-up area and transmit pictures back to a base up to a mile away.

The buggy could also carry stretchers to cart wounded out of the area and, with attached mechanical jaws, could pick up cluster bombs and dispose of them.

The buggy had four cameras mounted on a periscope-type system for identifying threats in an urban environment.

The Ministry of Defence Challenge was a competition designed to develop the use of robotics in urban warfare.

Twenty-eight teams applied for the competition, which was whittled down to six for the final stages, which included Smith Engineering and the Silicon Valley team. It did not win the competition.

Rod Smith, owner of the engineering works, said he was delighted with the success of reaching the final.

He said it was mainly due to the expertise of his nephew and technical director, Richard Smith.

Sellafield is already using a buggy similar to the one entered into the competition.

The search and rescue vehicle can be used to enter an area where there is a problem along with stretchers.

Mr Smith said that in an ordinary situation it could take up to eight people to get into a room that might be contaminated and carry two people out on stretchers. With the robot, it requires only one person to drag them onto the stretchers on the buggy.

“This buggy has been tried several times and worked well – but only in exercises. It has not had to perform a real rescue yet,” he said.

The company has also created a robot to carry radioactive material as part of the decommissioning process.