The next generation of military unmanned ground vehicles will be more versatile and easier to control, with increased commonality and interoperability, and priced so that shrinking, cost-conscious military forces can afford them for use in a growing range of missions. Some will offer flexible autonomy, improved off-road mobility, or both.
In the USA and other nations where military manpower is declining and budgets are tightening, military customers are seeking greater versatility and cost-effectiveness. Interest is growing in systems with modular payloads, which adapt vehicles for various missions, and in appliqué kits that can be used on more than one kind of existing vehicle to allow various degrees of autonomy.
"I think there are four major things that are going to be different," says Jeffrey Jaczkowski, deputy project manager at the US Army's Robotic Systems Joint Project Office. "Open systems; a high degree of commonality; plug and play or modularity; and increasing levels of intelligence. "
"What we're going to be procuring here in our next wave of systems is open architectures and a set of standards that we call interoperability profiles [IOP] that define the interfaces and the architecture."
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These advances will lead to a family of robotic systems of different sizes, Jaczkowski says. The small Individual Common Robotic System will weigh up to 20lb and could be carried by an individual. The medium-sized (100-200lb) Common Robotic System Vehicle will be transportable on another vehicle. The large Common Robotic System Self-Transportable, which could weigh tonnes, will be able to keep up with the manoeuvre element. "What enables this whole concept is the definition of interoperability standards."
For example, the vehicle-transportable common robotic system is "a 150lb robot with an open architecture and a high degree of modularity," Jaczkowski says. "So what I can do with that robot is integrate different payloads on it for different applications. So I don't have to - and I won't - procure a unique robot with one dedicated capability for one user and then go out and buy a very similar robot with a different capability for another user."
In addition to the planned family of common robotic vehicles, the other element on the horizon is robotic kits for existing vehicles. Applying the kits to a vehicle enables it to be operated remotely with various degrees of autonomy.
A joint service program managed by the US Navy, the Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System (AEODRS), is developing the next generation of EOD robots. Based on open architecture, AEODRS over the next decade will develop a family of unmanned ground systems for dismounted operations, tactical operations and base/infrastructure operations, all with considerable commonality and autonomy and with modular subsystems. The family of systems will include three unmanned ground vehicles and two operator control units tailored to the main categories of EOD operations.
The smallest, for dismounted operations (Increment 1), is a backpackable, 35lb robot with a lightweight operator control unit (OCU). The vehicle can travel at 8mph (13km/h) and operate for 6h, with a range of 100m. Its manipulator arm can lift 5lb when fully extended. Designed for short-range reconnaissance, it can also place counter-charges to disrupt an explosive device. It could be deployed as early as fiscal 2015, with the two larger systems following about three years later.
The medium-size (under 165lb) tactical operations system (Increment 2) can be carried by a vehicle and by two technicians. It is intended for in-depth reconnaissance and use against a wide range of explosive devices. This system includes an unmanned ground vehicle and a larger OCU, which can control both this vehicle and the larger (750lb) one for base/infrastructure operations (Increment 3). The base/infrastructure system, which can be carried in a large vehicle, is used when heavy lifting and loading is needed.
CARGO-CARRYING
The next generation of UGVs will include robots larger than the familiar Qinetiq North America Talons and iRobot PackBots, predicts Myron Mills, project manager of the Lockheed Martin Squad Mission Support System (SMSS), a six-wheeled, 3,800lb UGV which has been tested in Afghanistan and was recently controlled by an operator 320km (200 miles) away using a satellite link.
"We see an opportunity for much larger unmanned ground vehicles to do a much wider range of things," Mills says. "The small bots, because of their small size and limited range, are actually very constrained to only a few missions.
"Once you move up to a larger-size robot, something like the SMSS, which is kind of the size of a small compact car, or in the case of AMAS [Autonomous Mobility Appliqué System], where we're putting appliqué robotic kits onto large military trucks, now you open up a whole new realm of capabilities. Everything from hauling the soldier's gear to automating line-haul logistics."
Military technologies often migrate to the commercial sector, but in at least one case the reverse is happening.
"With AMAS, we're taking some technologies that haven't previously been used in military context to bear," says David Simon, Lockheed Martin's programme manager for the system. "AMAS is a kit-based system that is integrated with low-cost sensors and control systems on the [US] Army and Marine Corps vehicles. We're providing some driver aids, like driver warning and driver assist, that are being developed in the commercial automotive market and integrating those into [military] vehicles which will allow drivers to have more flexibility, the convoy commander to have more flexibility and aid the driver in such a way that he can focus on things ... such as having more situational awareness."
Lockheed Martin in September 2012 began integrating AMAS kits on five military vehicles, ranging from a medium truck to a tractor-trailer than can carry a tank.
SMSS, which is targeting a future army programme called SMET (Squad Multi-Purpose Equipment Transport), is proceeding primarily on internal funding, Mills says. Lockheed Martin has proven the capability to lighten the soldier's load, he adds, and is nows "exploring the flexibility of the system to provide mission equipment packages", enabling users to undertake other missions, such as counter-IED, reconnaissance and logistics transport.
"Right now, what we're seeing is, because of the sequester and because of the impending retrograde out of Afghanistan, we're seeing pretty flat activity," Mills says. "We think that the military is going to be budget-constrained enough that it's not going to be adequate to offer a system that simply addresses one mission need," Mills says.
Appliqué kits are in the mix too. TORC Robotics and Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory are focusing on the Ground Unmanned Surrogate System (GUSS), which features the ByWire kit, and Kairos Autonomi) has its Pronto4 Series 4 Agnostic Autonomy System. Both are designed to carry gear for tactical units.
Oshkosh Defense and its partners are using its TerraMax appliqué system to operate the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement truck and other vehicles with or without drivers, reducing the number of operators needed for convoys and the risk to them.
FUTURE TRENDS
As he looks at the future of military UGVs, PW Singer, author of Wired for War, sees three trends. "One is their design in terms of size, shape and form," he says. "The second is their growing intelligence and autonomy. The third is the greater number of uses and users.
"Size, shape, form: this is where we're seeing an explosion of creativity. We're learning from nature in many different areas of design, but particularly in propulsion," he adds. "That's where you're seeing a lot of the moves toward legged and insect and snake and birds."
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The second trend, towards more intelligence and autonomy, is "powerful and important and, in many ways, new". The third trend is that as UGVs become easier to use, more people will be using them and coming up with new ways to employ them.
Ground robots are not just for counter IED and EOD missions anymore, RSJPO's Jaczkowski says. "The usage has expanded into other application areas, to include support of the infantry, military police, chem-bio detection. Onboard intelligence is going to be the capability that really captures the infantry or manoeuvre community."
Once UGVs approach the capabilities of military working dogs, such as being controllable by voice or hand gestures and having dog-like mobility and intelligence, he says, "that's really going to be the leap where the robots will just explode in terms of military applications and relevance to the door kickers and trigger pullers".
Source: Flight Daily News
