Army to demonstrate autonomous vehicle tech next month

The Army next month will demonstrate autonomous research for next-generation combat vehicle development that the service has been collecting for nearly a decade.

The Army Research Laboratory is leading an effort, called the "Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance," a 10-year program for ground robotics technology research that has aimed to develop autonomy for manned-unmanned teaming, according to an Army press release issued this month.

Stuart Young, the laboratory's RCTA collaborative alliance manager, said in the release that over the program’s course they "created new knowledge and understanding in ground robotics autonomy that benefits government, academia and industry, and we forged the ARL Autonomy Enterprise to operationalize artificial intelligence for maneuver."

Young said researchers are immediately concerned with making the robots move faster, as well as making them more resilient both physically and in terms of software and intelligence.

The RCTA was awarded in 2010 and is expected to conclude early next fiscal year, according to the release.

The group over the last 10 years has identified four key technology areas that will be critical to future autonomous systems development: "perception, intelligence, human-robot interaction and dexterous manipulation and unique mobility," the release says.

The demonstration will be held at an Oct. 17 "integration showcase" at Carnegie Mellon University's National Research Engineering Center in Pittsburgh.