Increasing emphasis is being placed on the development of autonomous technology for military land vehicles, but full-scale operational capability still seems years away.
For Defence, autonomous and robotic systems is one of the few areas of current technology that legitimately qualifies as having a potentially revolutionary impact on ADF operations, extending their reach and effectiveness while simultaneously reducing risk to personnel.
The sector received a boost last July with the launch of Australia’s first Defence Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). This will focus on developing trusted autonomous systems to deliver “game-changing unmanned platforms that ensure reliable and effective co-operation between people and machines during dynamic military operations”.
Assessing current developments involves agreeing on an accurate description of autonomy.
Dr Simon Ng, Group Leader Unmanned Aerial Systems at the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG), says an autonomous vehicle is one which essentially has the capacity to scope the environment and make decisions about how to respond to that environment in order to complete whatever mission it has been given.
“Often a so-called driverless vehicle is simply one that is being managed remotely,” Dr Ng explained to ADM. “The other end to that spectrum is Level 5 Autonomy where the vehicle is performing all the functions normally performed by a human operator; detecting obstacles, detecting risks and threats, reading signage and plotting routes.”
Most of the research and development in the defence area continues to be focused on the sensing level – the terrain, the difference between a rock and a tumbleweed, between a truck and a building, a cyclist and a pedestrian – followed by sense-making through artificial intelligence (AI) that gives meaning to the scene.
“There are very few autonomous vehicles today that are capable of doing that with any degree of sophistication and when you put them into an uncontrolled military environment anything can happen, so the system must know when it can no longer deal with the situation and refer back to a human for direction,” Dr Ng said.
“The CRC is all about developing fundamental, underlying technologies that will allow machines to make those kinds of rational decisions.”
Industry support
BAE Systems Australia is leading the CRC’s land autonomy element and Director of Engineering Brad Yelland says this fits in well with the way the company is looking at the future of land combat and logistics vehicles.
“We’re looking essentially at existing platforms and how you can use autonomy with Land 400 vehicles to enhance and augment their capabilities by developing interfaces with drones and things like that.
“Replacing a driver, standard waypoint navigation, that’s all pretty standard now. Adding the smarts in autonomy is around new forms of navigation – how do you navigate when you haven’t got GPS, when you haven’t got a map?”
Yelland points out that BAE Systems in Melbourne began work on autonomous operations more than a decade ago, starting with simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) technology.
“We proved we could easily navigate to within sub-metre accuracy over long periods without GPS. Not only that, we could use the technology to build a map of the area in which we were operating as well.
“The areas we’re getting into now are giving the autonomous vehicle an understanding of vegetation density, obstacles, ground surfaces, potholes etc using stereo vision or hyperspectral sensors.
“And what does the vehicle do in an urban environment when it comes to an intersection, has to turn either left or right, and doesn’t know what the terrain is in either direction?
“We’re now looking at a whole range of technologies that help with that, including interaction between the ground vehicle and a drone providing map information”.
Increased maturity around autonomy meant Defence was now talking to industry about specific scenarios for the capability, much of it around logistics-type operations.
This was echoed by DSTG’s Dr Ng, who points out the force multiplier effect of an autonomous logistics capability using network-based rather than convoy-based routing.
DSTG continues to work with the US AOS Group, Insitu and Deakin University on an integrated group of unmanned vehicles and ground sensors that would provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance responses to intruders in environments typical of airfields, forward operating bases and ports.
This collaboration remains part of DSTG’s broader mandate for the development of autonomous technologies, in which the CRC will play a vital role. However, “the more abstract the work, the more it’s about reasoning and the less it’s about a particular platform, meaning it’s more transferable”, comments Dr Ng.
International experience
Last September BAE Systems in the UK unveiled its Ironclad unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), a modular tracked system designed to undertake reconnaissance, casualty evacuation, area denial and explosive ordnance disposal roles.
The smaller of two configurations is a twin-tracked platform weighing 200kg with a payload capacity of 250kg. The larger quad track configuration couples together two of the smaller UGVs and has a 400kg payload that can include a stretcher. Unusually for an UGV, the Ironclad’s armoured hull provides protection against blast and small-arms fire.
The company says the platform will reach speeds of up to 50-60km/h, enabling it to become part of a system of systems rather than a standalone platform. At the same time BAES revealed a future concept of the tank of the future as an autonomous combat vehicle supported by fleets of smaller autonomous air and ground vehicles.
As well as sharing visual reconnaissance information, the network of smaller vehicles would act as an outer perimeter, engaging threats and incoming attacks with on-board weapon stations.
Less futuristically, last November a joint UK-US team successfully trialled unmanned resupply techniques and concepts in Michigan. The work included a representative coalition sustainment convoy comprising trucks equipped with the Lockheed Martin-developed Autonomous Mobility Applique System (AMAS).
AMAS is a multisensory applique kit that is designed for integration with tactical vehicles and can be retrofitted to legacy fleets.
Rheinmetall has meanwhile outlined its plans for a large 8x8, fully amphibious multi-mission UGV designed for roles including reconnaissance and tactical surveillance, logistics support, casualty evacuation, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives detection, communications relay, and as a weaponised combat system. First deliveries are expected late this year.
The vehicle can be operated by either direct remote control via RF line-of-sight or satellite communications, or can be programmed to follow GPS waypoints. The system can automatically follow routes that it has already travelled, and will also operate in a ‘follow me’ mode using a LIDAR to track the operator at a set distance.
Last October Mercedes Benz demonstrated autonomous drive through four interconnected Arocs prime movers in a coordinated and complicated snow-clearing simulation at a former German airbase.
The four trucks completed the simulation without any external input, utilising a Remote Truck Interface (RTI) for remotely controlling vehicle functions and exchanging data that was integrated to the vehicles’ CAN BUS central electronics system.
All four vehicles were fully interlinked via the RTI by telematics systems, and were also equipped with dual GPS tracking (DGPS) and vehicle-to-vehicle communications technology. All were able to lead or follow in the vehicle convoy. According to the company, the technology can facilitate a convoy of up to 13 unmanned vehicles, military or civilian, all following an operator-driven lead vehicle.
The potential efficiencies are obvious and Linfox, Australia’s largest supply chain operator, confirmed its interest in autonomy to
ADM but declined to give any details of status.
US programs
In the US, driverless technology for the military was spearheaded more than a decade ago by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and its sponsorship from 2004 to 2007 of a series of Grand Challenges to spur research on fully autonomous ground vehicles. Now much of this research is the purview of the US Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Centre (TARDEC).
While the focus has been on leader-following technologies for convoys taking supplies to forward operating bases, more recent thinking includes the concept of robotic wingmen, where formations may include a manned command-and-control vehicle that guides unmanned combat vehicles on the battlefield.
Under the Wingman Joint Capability Technology Demonstration program, engineers have already been able to autonomously pilot a specially-configured Humvee and hit targets with its onboard 7.62mm weapon system. The intention is that a soldier will always remain in the loop.
As aspirations for autonomous operations grow, TARDEC and DSTG are involved in the little-known TORVICE (Trusted Operation of a Robotic Vehicle in a Contested Environment) joint program to establish a baseline for long-distance control of a robotic vehicle.
In 2016 TARDEC robotics engineers used Woomera to test a modified Jeep Wrangler Rubicon running a TARDEC autonomous mobility system. According to US media reports, this was coupled with an Australian-developed satellite-on-the-move system to transfer data between a control station and the moving robotic vehicle.
At the same time three DSTG groups reportedly collected passive electronic warfare data to prepare for follow-on trials scheduled for 2017. These were to assess cyber vulnerabilities by challenging the technology from an adversary’s perspective. Senior sources confirmed the follow-up trials had taken place as scheduled and the program was ongoing, but declined any further comment.
This article first appeared in the March 2018 edition of ADM.