While on public roads self-driving cars are still years away, autonomous systems are already common in much less congested and/or much more controlled environments — such as farm fields, ports, mines, rivers, and in the air — where the risk of a collision causing injuries or fatalities is smaller by orders of magnitude. From unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) taking aerial photographs, to unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) spraying vineyards, to unmanned surface vessels (USV) conducting hydrographic surveys, autonomous or semi-autonomous systems are generally much safer, more efficient, and cheaper to operate than their manned counterparts.
Whether they have wheels, hulls, or wings to properly perform their tasks, autonomous systems need to know — with great accuracy — their position, heading and attitude (roll, pitch, yaw, surge, sway, and heave). For example, to spray grapes in a vineyard, an autonomous system needs to know not only its exact position but also whether it is level or tilted to one side due to uneven terrain, lest it spray the ground or into the air instead of the grapes. Similarly, a survey vessel’s pitch, which depends on its speed through the water, and its roll, due to waves and wind, affect the direction of its sonar beams.
Knowing a platform’s position, heading and attitude requires tight integration of the outputs of GNSS receivers and inertial navigation systems (INS). This enables autonomous systems to compensate for their movements — either physically and in real time, by orienting their sensors or tools, or in software when post-processing the data they collected.
The following three case studies sample current developments in autonomous systems on land, in the air, and on the water.
The CivDot UGV marks thousands of coordinates per day precisely and efficiently
Trimble Ventures, Trimble’s corporate venture capital fund, is investing in Civ Robotics, a San Francisco-based construction tech startup focusing on transforming surveying layout for civil engineering and infrastructure projects.
The investment supports Trimble Ventures’ mission to invest in early and growth-stage companies that are accelerating innovation, digital transformation and sustainability in the industries Trimble serves: agriculture, construction, geospatial and transportation. The investment terms were not disclosed.
The construction industry faces a variety of challenges including shortage of skilled workers, safety and productivity. Civ Robotics addresses these challenges with CivDot, a new autonomous surveying solution that empowers efficiency, productivity and safety on the job.
CivDot is an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) designed for civil engineering and infrastructure projects such as solar farms, roadways, data centers, power plants and more. Augmenting the surveyor’s work, CivDot marks thousands of coordinates per day precisely and efficiently, while delivering layouts faster than traditional methods.
“We are focused on investing in companies that are seeking to address important challenges in markets that align with Trimble’s mission of transforming the way the world works,” said Aviad Almagor, vice president of technology innovation at Trimble and technology advisor for Trimble Ventures. “Civ Robotics technology supports surveyors and field workers and helps remove the burden of repetitive and risky work.”
Civ Robotics uses Trimble’s high-precision GNSS positioning technology and surveying software to improve productivity and increase safety, Almagor said. “This is an exciting opportunity to help accelerate innovation in autonomy, surveying and construction.”
“Trimble and our vision are in lockstep towards construction automation with a sharp focus on the highest standards of safety and quality,” said Tom Yeshurun, co-founder and CEO, Civ Robotics, which announced its $5 million seed funding round this morning. “Through Trimble’s latest GNSS technology in our autonomous surveying products, our customers can benefit from an end-to-end workflow.”
Civ Robotics will be showcased at the Trimble Dimensions+ User Conference, taking place Nov. 7-9 in Las Vegas.
The CivDot UGV, equipped with Trimble high-precision GNSS. (Photo: Civ Robotics)
GMV will take charge of the command and control and C4ISR interoperability system under the Integrated Modular Unmanned Ground System (iMUGS).
The European Commission’s European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) has assigned 30.6 million euros to the iMUGS project for the development of an unmanned ground system. This makes it one of the European Commission’s biggest defense investments to date.
The Integrated Modular Unmanned Ground System (iMUGS) project will be carried out by a consortium primed by Milrem Robotics, with another 11 high-tech defense firms, including the technology multinational GMV.
The common development of this vehicle will build from Milrem Robotics’s previous program called THEMis, with the addition of various mission systems and autonomy solutions.
The aim is to develop a valid scalable architecture applicable to both manned and unmanned vehicles, with the idea of standardizing Europe’s ground and air systems and its command-and-control and communications systems, sensors, payloads and autonomy algorithms.
The system will consist of a robust and modular ground vehicle fitted with an electronic-warfare-resistant command, control and communications system and secure autonomous mobility software to allow the operator to control many different ground and air platforms securely and simultaneously.
iMUGS will include several components:
system cybersecurity
autonomous mobility
advanced communications systems and further driving-related developments
manned-unmanned teaming (MUT) including swarms.
iMUGS will enable European countries to use unmanned vehicles with logistics and ISR functions, trimming the load and increasing troop security.
With this joint initiative, the European Defence Fund meets member states’ requirements and draws on the skills of Europe’s industry to boost defense capabilities and strategic autonomy.
European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP)
The European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) is the first initiative of the European Union’s 2019 and 2020 defense research window of capabilities. Announced on June 7, 2017, EDIDP can be considered the “preparatory action” of defense research to prove the feasibility of a joint defense-capability development and procurement program.
EDIDP’s aim is to drive the European Union’s strategic autonomy and cooperation between member states, making it possible for armed forces to carry out high level operations, with special attention to intelligence, secure communications and cybernetics.
Under the EDIDP 2019-2020 program, GMV is participating in the iMUGS, GEODE, ESC2 and PANDORA projects.
GMV‘s iMUGS role
GMV will be coordinator of the command and control and C4ISR interoperability subproject. GMV is bringing to the table experience in C2 ground systems and JISR (joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance interoperability).
The overall aim is to develop the C2ISR tactical component for planning and carrying out joint manned and unmanned systems operations, using and distributing sensor data from the unmanned ground vehicle.
JISR interoperability synchronizes and integrates the planning and operation of all information-obtaining capacities with operation and processing capacities, sending on the resulting information to the assigned person at the right time in the right form and in direct support of present and future operations.
The Boxer Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) is used by many allied forces. (Photo: U.K. Ministry of Defence)
The C2 command and control subsystem will be fitted in a Boxer 8 x 8 vehicle for manned-unmanned teaming (MUT) coordination tests.
GMV’s participation in iMUGS is based on its experience in C2 ground systems, dismounted soldier C2 systems and JISR interoperability, areas where GMV is one of the leading companies in Europe. GMV is a supplier of Artillery and Dismounted Soldier Command and Control Systems for the Spanish MoD.
Since 2016 it has been responsible for maintenance and upgrading of the EUCCIS C2 system of the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Remotely controlled Javelin firings can help keep soldiers out of harm’s way. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)
The Javelin Joint Venture team, a partnership of Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin, successfully fired Javelin missiles from a Kongsberg remote launcher mounted on a Titan unmanned ground vehicle built by QinetiQ North America and Milrem Robotics.
The demonstrations, conducted at the U.S. Army Redstone Test Center, Alabama, validated the integration of the weapon station, missile and vehicle.
“Javelin is ready to support emerging military robotic vehicle requirements,” said Sam Deneke, Raytheon Land Warfare Systems vice president. “Remotely operated technology like this protects soldiers in battle.”
Javelin has been fielded on the Common Remote Operations Weapon Station-Javelin across U.S. Army Stryker 8×8 vehicle brigades in Europe.
“Javelin offers true fire-and-forget engagements to 4 kilometers in most operational conditions,” said David Pantano, Javelin Joint Venture vice president and Lockheed Martin Javelin program director. “Once the launch command is issued, soldiers and vehicle assets like the UGV can reposition out of harm’s way. These tests demonstrated our ability to evolve Javelin capabilities to address new missions in support of the warfighter.”
Javelin is a versatile one-man-portable and platform-employed anti-tank and multi-target precision weapon system. The Javelin Joint Venture team has produced more than 45,000 Javelin missiles and 12,000 command launch units. The program continually updates the system to stay ahead of advancing threats, including enhancing its platform-mounted capabilities.
U.S. and coalition forces have used Javelin extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq in more than 5,000 engagements.
DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program envisions future small-unit infantry forces using small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or small unmanned ground systems (UGS) in swarms of 250 robots or more to accomplish diverse missions in complex urban environments.
By leveraging and combining emerging technologies in swarm autonomy and human-swarm teaming, the program seeks to enable rapid development and deployment of breakthrough capabilities to the field.
DARPA has awarded Phase 1 contracts to teams led by Raytheon BBN Technologies and Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Image: DARPA
Swarm Tactics. Both teams will serve as a swarm systems integrators tasked with designing, developing and deploying an open architecture for swarm technologies in physical and virtual environments.
Each system would include an extensible game-based architecture to enable design and integration of swarm tactics, a swarm tactics exchange to foster community interaction, immersive interfaces for collaboration among teams of humans and swarm systems, and a physical testbed to validate developed capabilities.
The teams will be responsible for experimentation and systems-integration efforts for realizing swarm capabilities, including producing tactics and technologies to test on its respective architecture.
Swarm Sprints. DARPA also aims to engage with a wider developer and user audience through rapid technology-development and integration efforts called swarm sprints. Participants in these experiments — sprinters — can work with one or both integration teams and each other to create and test their own novel swarm tactics and enabling technologies.
Roughly every six months, DARPA plans to solicit proposals from potential sprinters, with each swarm sprint focusing on one of five thrust areas: swarm tactics, swarm autonomy, human-swarm teaming, virtual environment and physical testbed.
The end of each sprint would coincide with physical and virtual capability-based experiments designed to test and assess integration of the thrust-specific OFFSET technologies. The experiments would also provide direct engagement between DARPA, the teams and sprinters, and warfighters who could help further tailor OFFSET capabilities to meet real-world operational needs.
“The swarm sprints are empirical experiments designed to accelerate our understanding of what swarms can do in urban environments,” said Timothy Chung, program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. “By having swarm sprints at regular intervals, we’re able to ensure that we’re keeping up with the latest technologies — and are in fact helping inform and advance those technologies — to better suit the needs of the OFFSET program. Given the wide range of capabilities that we’re interested in, we’re looking for wherever those innovative solutions are going to come from, whether they be small businesses, academic institutions or large corporations.”
The unmanned ground vehicle market (UGV) is estimated to be valued at $1.49 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $2.63 billion by 2021 with a CAGR of 12.14 percent during the forecast period, according to a new market report.
The report, published by MarketsandMarkets, examines the unmanned ground vehicle market (UGV). The base year considered for the study is 2015, and the forecast period is 2016 to 2021.
The title of the report is “Unmanned Ground Vehicle Market by Application (Defense-ISR, EOD, Crew Integration, Commercial-Agriculture, Field, Domestic, Transportation), Mobility (Wheeled, Tracked), Size, Component, Modes of Operation, Payload & Region — Global Forecast to 2021.” The 193-report includes an in-depth table of contents, 86 market data tables and 64 figures.
The increasing demand for UGVs in the commercial and defense sectors and technological innovations that have created a demand for UGVs to perform complex operations with minimal human intervention and better safety are the major factors driving the UGV market, according to the company’s analysts.
Based on application, the UGV market has been segmented into commercial and defense. The commercial segment of the UGV market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR till 2021. This growth is driven by the increasing demand for domestic and industrial UGVs.
Based on size, the unmanned ground vehicle market has been segmented into micro UGVs, small UGVs, medium UGVs, and large UGVs. The small UGV segment of the unmanned ground vehicle market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The demand for small UGVs from both the commercial and defense sectors for their capabilities has enhanced the growth of this segment.
Wheeled UGV and tracked UGV have been considered under the mobility segment of the unmanned ground vehicle market wherein the tracked UGV segment is projected to grow at the highest growth rate. Tracked UGVs are more versatile than wheeled UGVs as they can be operated on difficult terrains and can carry higher amounts of loads, thus leading to its higher demand.
Autonomous mode
In 2012, a second unmanned MTVR was built to evaluate multiple UGVs supervised by a single operator.
The unmanned ground vehicle market is segmented into tethered, tele operated, semi- autonomous and autonomous, based on mode of operation. The autonomous segment is estimated to have the largest share with the highest CAGR in this segment during the forecast period due to their capability of operating without any human intervention.
The software component segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period compared to the hardware segment as the customers are looking for sophisticated UGVs, which require advanced software systems.
The UGV market Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The rapid growth of the Asia-Pacific market can be attributed to the increasing investments to develop UGVs for defense as well as commercial applications. The investments are mainly driven by the developments in China, India, Japan and South Korea, which are among the fastest-emerging economies in the world.
Major players
The major players in this market have been identified to be QinetiQ Group Plc. (U.K.), iRobot (U.S.), Northrop Grumman (U.S.), Oshkosh Corporation (U.S.) and Lockheed Martin (U.S.), among others.
The report segments and analyzes the unmanned ground vehicle market on the basis of mode of operations (tethered, tele-operated, semi-autonomous and autonomous), mobility (wheeled and tracked), size (micro, small, medium and large), payload (sensors, lasers, camera, radars and others), application (defense and commercial), and component (hardware and software) and maps these segments and sub-segments across the major regions of the world, namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the rest of the world (comprising Latin America and Africa). Brief information on the research methodology for the report can be found in the report description provided on website.
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