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Archive for the ‘Robotics’ Category

US Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center Selects Persistent Systems for 10X Robotics/AI Program

Friday, October 27th, 2023

October 25, 2023

Manned-unmanned teaming effort follows prior 10X in which company provided critical network

Persistent Systems, LLC (“Persistent”), a leader in mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) technology, was one of eight organizations selected by the National Advanced Mobility Consortium (NAMC) to support them in the execution of the U.S. Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) Task Request 22 Robotics and Artificial Intelligence 10X Dismounted Infantry Platoon, a program set to end in a technology demonstration in September 2024, in Fort Moore, Ga.

Managed by NAMC, this 10X program aims to make Army infantry platoons 10 times more effective through the testing of select unmanned vehicles and other systems in a simulated urban environment—with Persistent Systems providing the data-agnostic, high-throughput IP communications backbone.

“We are very excited to, once again, be supporting 10X,” said Jeffrey Washington, Director for Business Development, U.S. Army/UGVs, at Persistent Systems. “We see our selection by the GVSC’s Dismounted Robotic Systems branch as a vote of confidence in the communications and support work we did during the previous 10X effort, which wrapped up with a demonstration in September 2022.”

During that prior effort, which had forces employ a mix of unmanned systems and other technology to cross an open area, the Persistent Systems Wave Relay® MANET established vital command-and-control links, while the company’s Cloud Relay™ beyond-line-of-sight capability helped developers remotely address software issues on third party platforms.

This time around, there will be even more equipment to network and an urban environment to consider. Still, company officials say they’re up for the job.  “Our MANET is self-forming, self-healing, and highly scalable,” said Washington. “We’ve worked with a wide range of platform partners, and in the past, we have scaled up our network to link hundreds of nodes.”

AUSA 23 – SIG Showcases Robotic Systems

Tuesday, October 10th, 2023

Producer of the US Army’s Modular Handgun System and Next Generation Weapons SIG SAUER displayed their new robotic systems at the AUSA Annual Meeting this week.

The system consists of three main components: Mule robot, Pitbull Remote Weapon Station, and NG3 Mingun Gatling Gun.

Chambered in 338 Norma Mag, the NG3 Minigun Gatling Gun is from Stone Horse, LLC, a Richmond-based manufacturer. It features four rotating barrels and offers a 2000 rounds-per-minute rate of fire. However, this can be tuned to avoid certain frequencies for aviation applications. The MG3 weighs in at 50 lbs with electrical box.

The Mule and Pitbull are products of General Robotics which was purchased last year by SIG SAUER. We’ve seen Pitbull in the past, which debuted with SIG during the defense products demonstration at this year’s SHOT Show range.

Pitbull weights 85 kg dry and can be configured with a wide variety of weapons and mounted to vehicles, robots and even in static applications as well as on a tripod.

This is the first time we have seen Mule. Equipped with band tracks, it weights 100 lbs with batteries and can be remotely operated or programmed to transit a predetermined route. Additional equipment is available to provide the Mule autonomous capability to assess and negotiate terrain.

SIG’s booth had a couple of other Easter eggs like this pistol equipped quadcopter also from their General Robotics division.

Editor’s Note: I called the Next Generation 3 a “Minigun” because that’s technically what it is, but the M134 is commonly known as a Minigun and this isn’t an M134.

Eric

NDIA Future Forces Conference 23 Poster #12 – Acoustic & Visual Stealth for Robotic Snipers

Monday, October 9th, 2023

Robotics and in particular developing weapons for unmanned systems has become a focus of DoD. This poster was presented during NDIA’s recent Future Forces Capabilities Conference in Huntsville.

Contact info is on the poster for those interested.

Future of Human-Machine Integration Must Bring Right Mix of Robotic Elements to Formations

Monday, October 9th, 2023

WASHINGTON — As ground robotics and autonomy are expected to play a critical role in future warfare, four Army leaders will jump start AUSA with a Warriors Corner discussion on human-machine integration at 12:50 p.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.

Michael Cadieux, director of U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center; along with Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Norman, director of the Next Generation Combat Vehicles Cross-Functional Team, shortened NGCV CFT; Maj. Gen. Curtis Buzzard, commanding general at Maneuver Center of Excellence; and Col. Shane Upton, director of the Contested Logistics CFT, will address formation-based concepts developed with human-machine integration advances. Brig. Gen. Stephanie Ahern, concepts director at Army Futures Command, will moderate the panel discussion.

The session will be livestreamed on DVIDSHub.net.

Transforming for the future fight requires engagement across the Army and joint force. Advances in ground robotics and autonomy and the effective fusion of robotic systems into formations will provide new capabilities to help the Army achieve goals for multi-domain operations.

The fusion of robotics in formations is already taking place on the ground at various Army training locations.

“Soldier Touchpoints help us to help define future tactics and techniques for fighting with these revolutionary systems while informing future required capabilities for the science and technology community to develop,” Cadieux said.

“Human-machine integration is all about bringing the right mix of robotic elements to our formations to enable a total formation that is more capable than the sum of either the human or robotic elements,” he said.

Robotic combat vehicles will provide formation leaders new options on both the offense and the defense. The NGCV CFT has been at the forefront of robotic combat vehicle development and the experimentation that refines those vehicles.

“We’re already seeing the first robotic capabilities that we’ll be fielding, and our teams for years have been experimenting with the best way to integrate them into formations,” Norman said.

“We’re not sure yet what the integrated formations will look like, but it could require warfighters to control multiple platforms simultaneously, or perhaps multiple warfighters working different parts of the same system, or the flexibility to move between these two paradigms as the mission requires,” Norman said.

Robotic combat vehicles can accomplish some of the more dangerous and mundane tasks, such as refueling and for port logistics, while freeing up Soldiers to do the tasks that call for more thinking.

“Human-machine integration is fundamental to sustaining the future joint force operating in a contested logistics environment,” Upton said.

The integration of robotics into manned formations will iterate between doctrinal and training insights informing what the robots need to do and insights from experiments with the robots informing how doctrine and training need to adapt.

The Army has created a ground vehicle autonomy strategy built on a foundation of modular open systems approach, or MOSA, which will enable common unmanned maneuver capabilities across the ground vehicle fleet.

“Building a MOSA based, common approach to ground autonomy software lets the Army collaborate with a wide range of industry-leading partners while controlling current and future costs,” Cadieux said.

Understanding formation-based concepts developed with Human-Machine Integration advances is a key priority to designing the Army of 2040.

“The technologies Army pursues in the ground vehicle space drive at both robotic capability growth and in strengthening the interface between the Warfighter and the robotic elements,” Cadieux said.

By Jerome Aliotta

SOFWERX – Family of Small Unmanned Ground Systems (FosUGS) Assessment Event

Saturday, September 30th, 2023

I’m pretty excited to tell you that SOFWERX, in collaboration with SOF Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (SOF AT&L) Program Executive Office Tactical Information Systems (PEO-TIS), will host an Assessment Event (AE) 04-07 December 2023, to identify production model solutions for general-purpose multi-role/multi-mission robot systems. 

This assessment solicits white papers to describe the current capabilities of off-the-shelf robot systems in the 10-40 lbs weight range. Systems will be reviewed by USSOCOM stakeholders and Subject Matter Expert’s (SME’s) to identify solutions for future participation in the FosUGS indoor presentation/outdoor demonstration that will occur at SOFWERX to provide a pathway to ultimately conduct tests on selected systems for specific cyber, safety, and performance requirements.

Technology desired by USSOCOM is an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) general-purpose multi-role/multi-mission robot system in the weight range of 10-40 pounds that has some level of autonomous behaviors or capabilities which reduce operator workload and can operate in all-weather conditions within rural/urban environments. The system must have an integrated electro-optical/infra-red (EO/IR) full motion video (FMV) capability for day and night ISR operations and be payload agnostic to support additional payloads.

The 10-40 lbs range seems to be the one which the services are having the most trouble with. There are lots on micro systems out there (below 10 lbs) and loads of larger robots on the market but this small size seems to be a bit of an engineering challenge, balancing size, capability, and payload.

Remember, the robot is the platform and carries tailored, modular mission platforms. A robot with sensors, or weapons built-in becomes a screwdriver rather than a multi-tool and is less desirable due to its limited use. The image below gives you an idea of what I’m talking about regarding size. The larger robot is the Transcend Vantage and the much smaller robot is the Mini Vantage.

Program Executive Office Tactical Information Systems is a newly formed PEO within USSOCOM which combines elements of the old PEO Special Reconnaissance and PEO C4. It is responsible for Technical collection and communication, Integrated sensor systems, Sensitive Site Exploitation, Remote Capabilities; and Tactical Communications. Enterprise C4 systems have moved under the Director for Enterprise Information Systems.

To participate in this AE, submit NLT 20 October 2023 11:59 PM ET here.

The Ghost Robotics Vision-60 As ISR Platform

Wednesday, September 20th, 2023

A lot has been made of the weaponization of ground robots. Much of it is is due to our fascination with science fiction. No sooner is an image shared online like the one above of a robot armed with a machine gun than the comments about “Skynet” and “Terminators” kick in. But what is lost on most is why we developed robots in the first place. It wasn’t to deliver a lethal effect; there are lots of ways to make that happen. Robots were created as helpers, in order to remove humans from environments which might endanger them.

We’ve also got to accept a truth which is lost on many. The robot isn’t the capability, it’s the vehicle which delivers the capability. We desire effect and that requires various capabilities which come in the form of payloads. What makes various types of robots more desirable over others is how they deliver the payload to the right place, at the right time, to have the right effect. We use robots to reduce risk, particularly to humans.

Take for instance this image from last week’s DSEI show in London. We see a Ghost Robotics Vision 60 Quadraped – Unmanned Ground Vehicle carrying another robot, in this case an unmanned aerial system configured for an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance role. This combination may be perfect, depending on the operational environment. It may be highly lethal to humans and require close access to the target of the surveillance.

To be sure, there are definite reasons to weaponize ground robots. They can be used in overwatch for example, or to guard perimeters. But in each case, they are desirable in these roles because they take a human out of a threat environment. Recently, the US Army stated that it wants to place a Next Generation Squad Weapon XM7 rifle, firing the new 6.8mm cartridge on a Vision 60 Q-UGV. There are technical challenges which a couple of commercial companies have worked through, but it can be done. The question is, “why?” What effect do they believe it will provide? Is it the right payload for that platform?

During the Robotics track of next week’s NDIA sponsored Future Forces Capabilities event in Huntsville, Alabama, you’ll see a lot of talk of various means to weaponize robots. It makes sense considering the event evolved from annual small arms and armaments meetings. However, we need more participation from the ISR community in this event.

The air side of unmanned systems has taken the opposite path. Long dominated by collection activities, they’ve only more recently integrated kinetic weapons delivery to their repertoire.

I believe the best use of at least the smaller classes of ground robots is as platforms for various sensors, including ISR, CBRN and as comms relay nodes for these and others. Persistent access to items of intelligence value puts operators at risk. What’s more, the task is time consuming and boring. a human’s efforts are best spent elsewhere, like considering how to use the data being vacuumed by a multitude of robots fitted witg various collection payloads.

As a former SIGINTer and Intelligence officer I’ve been thinking a lot about how to use ground robots for ISR. There is a lot of synergy to be had between the air, subsurface (maritime), and ground robotics communities when it comes to payloads. We need more interest from the developers of sensors in utilizing ground robots of various classes as platforms and cross talk between the various warfighter communities.

Robots are coming to the battlespace. It’s up to us to determine how to best use them. Some will be armed and some will conduct ISR. Others will serve as logistics enablers and communications nodes.

We need to brainstorm ways to get the most out of our investment in ground-based unmanned systems. Soon, I’ll share a concept I’ve come up with to use Vision 60 Q-UGVs to access challenging terrain and environments to conduct Multi-Int persistent ground surveillance.

-Eric Graves

Editor

Milrem Robotics’ New Combat UGV with Loitering Munitions Allows Engagement Farther Behind Enemy Lines

Friday, September 15th, 2023

The European leading robotics and autonomous systems developer Milrem Robotics unveils a new THeMIS Combat Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) equipped with loitering munitions that allow engaging targets farther behind enemy lines.

The new system is equipped with Hunter 2-S tactical swarming drones by Halcon and features artificial intelligence that offers frontline forces the ability to locate, track and accurately eliminate soft targets, light vehicles and armoured vehicles from safe distances in challenging battlefield conditions.

“Units can manoeuvre the THeMIS Combat with Hunter 2-S drones closer to the enemy line. This allows them to engage closer targets faster or venture farther behind the lines to find suitable targets,” explained CPT (res) Jüri Pajuste, Defence R&D Director at Milrem Robotics.

The Hunter 2-S is able to autonomously follow a flight plan to an intended target area, coordinate with other drones in the swarm and loiter while seeking and classifying targets until engagement by a man-in-the-loop.

“Deploying robotic systems across enemy lines is considerably faster and more efficient than using manned units for the same task,” Pajuste said and added that using loitering munitions also enhances a unit’s situational awareness and ISR capabilities.

Hunter 2-S drones carry a payload of 2 kg each, can reach a cruising altitude of 500 m and cruise at an indicated airspeed of 25 m/s with a total available flight time of 45 minutes.

The mission-proven THeMIS UGV, which is part of robotics programs in 16 countries, is intended to support dismounted infantry units. It comes equipped with MIFIK – Milrem’s Intelligent Functions Kit that allows for independent mobility of the system, including point-to-point navigation, follow me, obstacle detection and avoidance.

The THeMIS Combat and other Milrem Robotics’ solutions are presented at DSEI 2023 in London and can be found in stand no H4-122.

Milrem Robotics is the leading European robotics and autonomous systems developer and systems integrator, with offices in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and the US. The company is known for their THeMIS and Multiscope UGVs, the Type-X Robotic Combat Vehicle and the MIFIK autonomy kit.

 

A Game-Changer That Redefines Future Battlefield Capabilities: The Type-X RCV, The First Robotic Combat Vehicle Equipped With A Mixed Reality Situational Awareness System

Wednesday, September 6th, 2023

A Game-Changer That Redefines Future Battlefield Capabilities: The Type-X RCV, The First Robotic Combat Vehicle Equipped With A Mixed Reality Situational Awareness System.

Europe’s leading robotics and autonomous systems developer Milrem Robotics will present the Type-X Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV), the first-of-its-kind equipped with a mixed reality situational awareness system (MRSAS) at DSEI 2023 in London.

The Vegvisir Remote MRSAS enhances the decision making of Type-X operators by giving them a 360-degree virtual dome with EO/IR sensor fusion for both close and medium proximity vision and target engagement capabilities in any condition. The system is optimised for lower bandwidth for remote use and connects the operator into a digital hub to interact and consume digital data.

“Milrem Robotics continues the development of the Type-X RCV by integrating cutting edge technologies to address the requirements of many countries interested in intelligent robotic systems, especially the Nordics and Western Europe, but also the US,” said Kuldar Väärsi, CEO of Milrem Robotics.

In addition to the new cutting-edge situational awareness system, the Type-X is equipped with KONGSBERG’s latest and best PROTECTOR Medium Calibre Turret that is changeable to specifically meet the particular needs of various end-users. The combination, that has passed several live firing tests, gives mechanized units the means to breach enemy defensive positions with minimal risk to their own troops.

The Type-X is also integrated with the QUADBOX by Elistair, that consists of a tactical tethered UAS for ISR, and communications relay designed to further enhance situational awareness for extended periods whilst on the move.

The Type-X RCV along with other Milrem Robotics’ products can be found at stand no H4-122.

The Type-X RCV is an organic part of mechanized units that can take the most dangerous positions and provide equal or overmatching firepower and tactical usage compared to traditional Infantry Fighting Vehicles.

It was developed to navigate the battlefield autonomously, with a human-in-the-loop control system and artificial intelligence (AI) as an integral part of the operating algorithm. With the Type-X Milrem Robotics also introduces a feature called Indirect Drive that allows remote controlled operations on higher speeds.

Milrem Robotics is the leading European robotics and autonomous systems developer and systems integrator, with offices in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and the US. The company is known for their THeMIS and Multiscope UGVs, the Type-X Robotic Combat Vehicle and the MIFIK autonomy kit.