ERDC successfully demos autonomous unmanned technology

Published April 6, 2012
The Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment simulation, left, is nearly identical to the actual environment, right, allowing users to make decisions and complete missions with speed and efficiency.

The Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment simulation, left, is nearly identical to the actual environment, right, allowing users to make decisions and complete missions with speed and efficiency.

April 6, 2012

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CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A recent demonstration in support of the Safe Operations of Unmanned Systems for Reconnaissance in Complex Environments (SOURCE) Army Technology Objective (ATO) proved successful for ERDC researchers and their simulation environment for autonomous unmanned ground vehicles.

"The goal of the event was to demonstrate new technologies that have been developed for the ATO," said Dr. Chris Goodin, a research physicist in ERDC-GSL. "ERDC demonstrated the Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment (VANE), a technology that is unique because it uses high-fidelity sensor simulations that run on high-performance computers to generate a realistic synthetic sensor data for the robot."

The demonstration was part of a multi-organization event held at the Camp Lejeune Military Operations in Urban Terrain facility in North Carolina. It was the Army's first large-scale demonstration of autonomous reconnaissance of an urban area.

SOURCE seeks to develop and demonstrate perception, intelligence, control and tactical behavior technologies required for autonomous collaborative unmanned systems and Soldiers to conduct safe operations in a dynamic urban environment. The systems have the potential to save lives by performing dangerous missions with minimal oversight, preventing Soldiers from having to monitor the missions directly.

The popularity of robots in-theater has increased dramatically during recent years—currently more than 6,000 are deployed.

"Initially they were dismissed," said Burhman Gates, a research electronic engineer in GSL. "Now, Soldiers don't just want a replacement robot—they want 'their' robot repaired and back in unit."

Over the next three to four years, ERDC plans to continue its efforts to mature autonomy. Efforts include focusing on unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and supporting the Overburden Technology Enabled Capability Demonstration team, made up of researchers from TARDEC, ERDC and ARL. The team plans to develop a UGV capable of autonomously following Soldiers during dismounted operations with water, batteries, ammunition and other supplies.

"Robots are here to stay, but there are new challenges," said Gates. "ERDC is helping to meet these challenges by modeling and simulating ground vehicle sensing movement in a high-performance computing environment," Gates said. "This approach enables a wide variety of environmental conditions to expose challenges before conducting field tests or gaining insights into field test results."

In addition to ERDC's VANE, other technologies tested included autonomous building mapping with a robot developed by the Army Research Laboratory's (ARL) Computational and Informational Sciences Directorate and autonomous reconnaissance mission headed by the Tank Automotive Research and Development Engineering Center (TARDEC).

"This was an important step toward developing a fielded, fully autonomous system," said Goodin.