Two companies win Land Forces 2022 Innovation Awards

Two Australian innovators have been named winners of the Land Forces 2022 Innovation Awards. Their success was announced on Tuesday 4 October at the Land Forces 2022  International Land Defence Exposition in Brisbane by LTGEN (retired) Ken Gillespie, AO, AC, DSC, CSM, the former Chief of Army and a Director of the event organiser, AMDA Foundation Limited.

The winners were announced during the Innovation Awards presentation ceremony on the first day of Land Forces 2022.

The winners are:

• LANDFORCES 2022 National Innovation Award: Pentarch Pty Limited (VIC) for developing the Damocles robotic handling, safety inspection and disarming system for live high explosive and illuminating artillery ammunition.
• LANDFORCES 2022 SME Innovation Award: Pentarch Pty Limited (VIC) for developing the Damocles robotic handling, safety inspection and disarming system for live high explosive and illuminating artillery ammunition.
• LANDFORCES 2022 Young Innovator Award: Mr James Tsarouhas, Anywise (VIC) for his work on designing and integrating the sensor array for the Fleet Agnostic Bridge Health and Usage Monitoring System, FABHUMS, making military bridges safer and more reliable.

In addition, three Award contenders were Highly Commended:

• LANDFORCES 2022 National Innovation Award HIGH COMMENDATION: DMTC Pty Limited (VIC) for leading a team that has developed a rapid diagnostic system that enables diagnosis in minutes of COVID and other viruses and bacteria that can afflict deployed troops.
• LANDFORCES 2022 Defence SME Innovation Award HIGH COMMENDATION: Tekuma (SA) for developing the Easy Manoeuvre Unit (EMU), incorporating a patented Tekuma control orb as a universal controller for robots.
• LANDFORCES 2022 Young Innovator Award HIGH COMMENDATION: Mr Lachlan Clark, Anywise (VIC) for his work on the software, Graphical User Interface (GUI) and data management system of the Fleet Agnostic Bridge Health and Usage Monitoring System, FABHUMS.

Land Forces 2022 organiser AMDA Foundation launched the Innovation Awards ten years ago. They are driven by the Foundation’s altruistic purpose: to promote the development of Australia’s industrial, manufacturing and information/communications technology resources in the fields of aviation, aerospace, maritime, defence and security. The Aweards recognise and reward innovation by Australian individuals and organisations at the forefront of defence innovation in products, services and business processes in the land domain.

They were presented for the first time at Avalon 2013. Since then some $485,000-worth of SME Innovation Grants and Young Innovator Awards have been presented, including the Cheques presented at Land Forces 2022.