D3IP Gives New Lease of Life to Idle Defence Rover

D3IP has successfully restored a sophisticated remote control rover that had been left non-functional at the BattleLab in Dorset for years, giving it a new lease of life a testing and experimentation capability.

Born out of curiosity and a collaborative partnership between SME and the Defence BattleLab, the project has revitalised a dormant asset that represented significant MOD investment into a fully operational platform for innovation and experimentation.

The rover, which was originally designed for battlefield logistics, had been stored in a container at the BattleLab. However, with the manufacturer going out of business, key documentation missing, and a lost control unit, the BattleLab sought D3IP’s help in seeing what could be done with the rover.

Joe Warren-Meeks, Principal Engineer at D3IP, said: “We came across the rover while working at the BattleLab. It had been sitting idle for years, and we decided that wasn’t acceptable. We wanted to get it working again.”

Using the Robot Operating System (ROS), a platform widely adopted by NASA and robotics researchers, the team reverse-engineered the rover’s internal network in a bid to give it a new lease of life. They identified and reconnected key components including electric motors, GPS, LIDAR, thermal imaging, and camera systems. Without access to passwords or manufacturer support, the team physically extracted the control unit, bypassed security protocols, and restored administrative access.

Julius Davidson (Defence BattleLab), Joe Warren-Meeks (D3IP) and his son, William (Bath University), who supported the project.

The result is a fully functional rover capable of real-time mapping and environmental sensing. It now serves as a flexible platform for the Defence BattleLab and D3IP to test and experiment with.

Demonstrating the now-functional rover, Joe added: “This wasn’t on any business plan. It was an organic collaboration – just a case of ‘you’ve got a rover that’s not working, let’s fix it’.”

The restored rover is now available at the Defence BattleLab for use in defence innovation projects, offering a unique opportunity for hands-on experimentation with cutting-edge robotics.

About D3IP
D3IP is pioneering a fresh approach to problem solving that combats the cumbersome government procurement process. We collaborate closely with government departments and supply chain partners to tackle challenges at pace. By facilitating direct engagement with the challenge owner at an early stage, organisations put off by the traditional procurement process have an opportunity to engage in a simplified way that reduces prohibitive cost and time pressures.

D3IP supports the Defence BattleLab to tackle Defence challenge through delivery of a digital ecosystem.

About Defence BattleLab
The Defence BattleLab, a collaborative environment in partnership with Dorset Council, Defence and Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership. The BattleLab brings together public and private sector parties to foster open and collaborative development of high-impact, user driven technology. The BattleLab is an opportunity for Defence problems to collide with industry solutions, an environment for academics, innovators and end users to think of ideas, fail fast and succeed sooner.

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