Recent testing at Fort Hood, TX showed state-of-the-art autonomy for critically needed applications for the US Army.
Unmanned operations in snow and rain.
Owners Karl Murphy (L) and Alberto Lacaze (R) in front of an unmanned Stryker vehicle.
Vetronics Technology Integration (VTI)
Vetronics Technology Integration used the same autonomous vehicle technologies actuation and sensing packages developed under DEMO III and SARTI to study the vetronics aspects of human machine interfaces. Other interests of this program include OCU development and Leader/Follower technologies.
Robotic Research developed Leader-Follower behaviors for this program. The Leader-Follower capability allows a vehicle to travel the same path as a lead vehicle (the leader essentially blazes a trail for the follower). XUVs and Stryker Light Armored Vehicle have been used in autonomous demonstrations where Leader/Follower platforms drove at 55kph without using GPS. Instead of GPS, the following vehicle uses a process called registration to map its Ladar data with that of the lead vehicle. To our knowledge, we are the only group who has developed accurate locale positioning data by using multiple range sensors. This same approach can be used for providing accurate scouting information. Follow-on forces can match sensor data with the sensor data collected by the scout vehicle to provide accurate local positioning information. Extensive tests have been performed with these vehicles at Fort Bliss, TX and Fort Indiantown Gap, PA.
This program is managed by the U.S. Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Command (TARDEC) with funding by U.S. Army TACOM.
Building on the knowledge gained from VTI, Driver Aids is a program that makes semi-autonomous helper aids that assist a human driver to make better decisions when operating an autonomous robotic vehicle.
