The Royal Thai Army (RTA) plans to develop a 5-year master plan for research cooperation with AIT, after the visit of 21 high-ranking officers from RTA, led by General Montri Sangkasap, Chief of Staff of the RTA, to AIT on 6 March 2007. The visit aimed to explore the possibility of cooperation between AIT and the RTA in applying research work to the RTA activities.
During the visit to AIT, RTA delegations viewed a presentation of research projects as follows: “Video Surveillance Using Face Detection and Human Behavior Profiling” and “Vision- based mapping and navigation for mobile robots” by Dr. Matthew Dailey; “Reinforced Lightweight Tire Chips- sand Mixtures for Bridge Approach Utilization: Performance of Full Scale Test” by Prof. Dennis Bergado; video presentation of 5 projects (1. Flying Robot 2. Underwater Robot 3. Medical Tele-Analyzer 4. Intelligent Vehicle 5. Exoskeleton) by Dr. Manukid Panichkun; “Development of a Hyper Redundant Binary Bio Inspired Elephant Trunk Robot” by Associate Professor Erik L. J. Bohez”; and “Campaign Assessment Tool” by Prof. Peter Haddawy (presented by Mr. Nattawut Samphaiboon).
The plan which will be completed in July 2007 will be provided to AIT in August 2007 to explore the possibility of cooperation with RTA. After which, there will be a signing of the agreement of understanding between RTA and AIT, including more details such as types of activities, duration of work, and sources of funding which might be from the Ministry of Defense, Royal Thai Government, Royal Thai Army or private sector (after the prototype has been completed).
According to General Montri, AIT is considered as an internationally acclaimed and renowned institute, and has full capacity in assisting the RTA through its research work. There are two ways for RTA and AIT in working together-- to identify the research need from RTA side, which will serve the real needs of the army, and to apply the selected existing AIT research work to the real situation.
He has seen many opportunities exist, and expressed the hope that the cooperation between RTA and AIT will increase.