The Corps announced the completion of their first test of multiple unmanned trucks simulating a cargo convoy using Oshkosh trucks. The test took place at Fort Pickett, Va., from July 24 to Aug. 5. Marine Corps leaders said the next step is an operational test in Afghanistan.
Oshkosh’s unmanned ground kit can be installed into new and old vehicles, even models other than Oshkosh’s. Pentagon officials have not set a timeline for deployment of the unmanned trucks to Afghanistan.
Early on in the life of this blog, we took a look at the Lockheed SMSS, a semi autonomous vehicle designed to alleviate the extreme load carried by today’s soldiers.
Here’s a video:
During their recent tour of Afghanistan, it was reported that the troops working with the vehicles requested an extension of the deployment in order to continue using them:
(The unit) has been using the SMSS primarily to help resupply smaller combat outposts and strongpoints, and on construction projects on its larger forward operating base. In one instance, the soldiers loaded the robot up with 100 sandbags, which the company estimates weighed 4,000 pounds (exceeding Lockheed’s recommended carrying weight of 1,200 pounds), and drove it up a 30-degree slope.
“We asked them not to do that again,” he quipped.
…
While initially planned as a squad-level asset, Nimblett said that the troops using it downrange are utilizing it more at the platoon level. The observation was reinforced when Lockheed brought the vehicle to the British Army for evaluation, and the Brits had the same idea.
Lockheed Martin has received positive reviews from U.S. Army soldiers deployed with the company’s unmanned ground transport vehicle that will start returning from Afghanistan this month.
The U.S. Army’s Rapid Equipping Force deployed Lockheed Martin’s Squad Mission Support in January. Four prototypes deployed to Afghanistan as part of Project Workhorse Unmanned Ground Vehicle.
One of the more profitable implementations of Driverless Cars in the short term is in the military space.
Most people are unaware that the initial impetus that sparked today’s push towards Driverless Cars comes directly from the U.S. military’s research arm, DARPA. DARPA ran several successful challenges to encourage scientific teams to develop autonomous vehicle technology.
Building on this is Torc Robotics, who have announced a vehicle that will conduct pre-landing groundwork for Air Force units.
To quote:
TORC Robotics recently demonstrated an autonomous vehicle for Air Force Research Labs (AFRL) capable of performing expedient runway surveys, including taking soil hardness measurements, providing terrain data and reporting hazards to flight.
Survey teams currently carry all of the necessary equipment along open runway areas. This labor-intensive process leaves them vulnerable to the many inherent risks of extended exposure times with limited situational awareness. The semi-autonomous process of surveying expedient runways with RAZTEK robotic systems offers a much faster, safer, more accurate means to gather the necessary data for assessing potential assault-zone landing strips.
Note – someone commented to me recently that half our articles are not actually about Driverless Cars per se. We post about related topics because we believe it is interesting to the readership,that it’s worth reporting on autonomous technology in most guises and that any technology that could form part of the steps towards Driverless Cars is worth reporting on. If you are reading this please provide us feedback on your thoughts!
Autonmous Underwater Vehicles
One field not really talked about much is Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs – not to be confused with UAVs). While anything underwater remains at the fringe, progress is being made in several areas has significant implications – some which are very scary. While they have long been used as buoys to track the weather, ocean temperatures and the like, technology is advancing at a rate of knots (he he).
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA, U.S. Navy and university researchers have successfully demonstrated the first robotic underwater vehicle to be powered entirely by natural, renewable, ocean thermal energy.
The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle uses a novel thermal recharging engine powered by the natural temperature differences found at different ocean depths. Scalable for use on most robotic oceanographic vehicles, this technology breakthrough could usher in a new generation of autonomous underwater vehicles capable of virtually indefinite ocean monitoring for climate and marine animal studies, exploration and surveillance.
Producers of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles is Hydroid Inc, a Pocasset MA based subsidiary of Norwegian firm Kongsberg Maritime, Atlas Elektronik (Germany), GAVIA (Iceland) and the CSIRO, an Australian governmental research agency.
See the video below to see their Remus series of vehicles in action.
Vehicles from Hydroid were used to investigate the Air France wreckage.
The main tools for the search were three Remus 6000 autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs. These torpedo-shaped robots weighing 1900 pounds apiece can travel up to 22 hours at a stretch at speeds of up to 6 mph, scanning the seabed with sonar imaging systems that can image a half-mile-wide swath with every pass. “The French had submersibles that could descend to this depth and look around, but really the only way you’re going to be able to find something like an aircraft in deep water is by using this type of wide-area survey capability,” says Dominique Rissolo, executive director of the Waitt Institute, the nonprofit oceanology organization that owns two of the three AUVs used in the search.
An AUV was used to map ruins off the coast of Greece:
But the secrets of this lost city – the world’s oldest submerged settlement – are at last being revealed with the help of ”revolutionary” underwater imaging technology developed by Sydney scientists at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics.
To assist archaeologists excavating the ancient ruin, the team have used an autonomous underwater vehicle with stereo cameras, as well as a diver-pushed rig, to produce photo-realistic 3D recreations of the seafloor site.
The ATLAS integrated mine countermeasures system (IMCMS) is a multi-role MCM weapon system that covers the complete process of mine warfare including minesweeping, mine-hunting and mine-laying on up to task unit level, as well as supporting functions such as hydrography, environmental assessment and surface and air surveillance. The system is based on open architecture, state-of-the-art technologies and is operated from multi-function consoles allowing the control of each sub-system, such as the hull-mounted sonar, the self-propelled variable depth sonar, the autonomous underwater vehicle and the remotely controlled surface drones, from any of the consoles.
Mine disposal system
The SeaFox system is a mine disposal system which is based on the ‘expendable mine disposal vehicle’ principle (EMDV). The SeaFox I, a small, reusable and unmanned underwater drone, is used for inspection, identification and training purposes, while the identical combat vehicle SeaFox C directly disposes long and short tethered mines, proud ground mines and floating mines. The four independent, reversible motors plus one hover thruster ensure high manoeuvrability and exact positioning for firing the shaped charge.
- Reconnaisance
Lockheed Martin has won a contract to supply “a multi-mission unmanned system to perform coastal defense, or intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR). Lockheed is doing the work under terms of a $52.7 million contract from U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington.” (source)
One can imagine a network of thermal-powered UAVs patrolling the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in order to keep track of naval activity, rising to the ocean to report back to base and sinking back again.
It seems like every naval service is involved in this – during research I found references to the EU, Russia, United States, Australia, Canada, Iceland, the UK and China all developing, selling or researching AUV technology specifically geared for military applications.
- Underwater IEDs & Terrorism
While it seems no one is publicly talking about it, the threat is easily recognisable.
Torpedoes – once launched – are incredibly hard to shake. Imagine an ocean full of mines that can swim towards the target.
Think about all the potential targets, including the enormous volume of merchant ships traversing the world today, cruise ships.. the list goes on.
In fact, any material that can be smuggled – weapons, drugs, chemicals, bootleg DVDs – would find a warm home in AUVs.
Colombian soldiers have for the first time seized a fully submersible drug-smuggling submarine capable of reaching the coast of Mexico, authorities have announced.
Heavily armed troops posed for photos with the submarine – complete with conning tower, steps up to a hatch, air-conditioning and a periscope.
Last July, another fully submersible ‘narcosub’ was seized just across the border by authorities in neighbouring Ecuador. But this new craft is one of the most advanced yet.. Read More
The Lockheed SMSS is designed to carry troop equipment and relieve the increased load that soldiers carry.
Using LADAR, the vehicle locks on to the soldiers in front of them and follows them. Makes me wonder what would happen in an ambush! The soldiers would scatter .. and the SMSS would follow them? I’m sure they have thought of that.
This video is less sexy but has more detail:
The SMSS can also be programmed to follow a planned route to a destination. It could well be the case that this equipment is transporting non-sensitive loads all by itself in the not too distant future.
Manmohan Bahadur, an Air Vice Marshal of the Indian Air Force (we’re guessing he knows what he’s talking about) has an article about the K-MAX in the India Times. In short he thinks the K-MAX is an unheralded, revolutionary technology.
