Pentarch Industrial, which operates outside of Oaklands, won both the National and the SME Innovation Awards, a first for the Land Forces Innovation Awards.
The company was recognised for developing a system called ‘Damocles’ which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics to remove the human risks associated with inspecting and defusing live high explosive and illuminating artillery rounds.
Pentarch Executive Director Chris Deighton said he and his team were “delighted with the acknowledgement” describing it as a “testimony to the power of bringing technical specialists together” to solve a longstanding problem for their client, the Australian Department of Defence.
“The cost of research and development and achieving compliance with defence requirements, especially where human safety is the overriding priority, can be demanding and often financially challenging for small to medium enterprises (SME),” Mr Deighton said.
“As an SME ourselves, we’ve worked closely with a very wide range of small businesses to develop our solution from a concept around the challenge faced then designed and integrated multiple sub systems in a fully automated process that can be transported and assembled at the required locations.”
The custom-made robotic system is operated remotely and moves pallets of ammunition within storehouses, conveys them to a process area that extracts ammunition boxes from the pallets, ammunition tubes containing the rounds from the boxes, removes the projectile from the inner packaging (tubes), then de-fuzes the round.
The fuze is then positioned for X-ray where it is determined to be in an ‘armed’ or ‘unarmed’ state, then repacked for re-use or sent to disposal.
Operating environmentally responsible ammunition disposal activities from Oaklands for the past 23 years, Pentarch has been a strong source of employment in the region.
Federation Council Mayor Pat Bourke extended a huge congratulations to Mr Deighton and the Pentarch team following their national recognition.
“Pentarch is a terrific business and one we are very fortunate to have in our Federation Council region,” Mayor Bourke said.
“Pentarch is a fantastic example of an innovative and cutting-edge business that supports our local economy with jobs, grants and other kind donations made.
“The service this company is able to offer to defence and many other industries in safely, environmentally and responsibly managing the disposal or decommissioning of so many different products is so significant.
“The entire team is very worthy of these awards, and I have no doubt this business will continue to go from strength to strength.”
The Damocles solution has been in operation since July 2021 under a commercial arrangement with Explosive Materiel Branch, Land Systems Division, Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, Department of Defence and will be completed by early 2023.
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