Army seeks robotics prototypes for infantry

The Army announced today it would seek robotics and artificial intelligence prototypes to make a dismounted infantry platoon 10 times more lethal and effective.

The program will be open to members of the National Advanced Mobility Consortium, and selected products could be demonstrated at Project Convergence 22, in October of next year, according to the announcement.

Systems should aid the "lethality, mobility, protection, situational awareness, endurance, persistence, and depth" of the dismounted infantry platoon, according to the announcement. The ultimate program goal is to increase all those characteristics by a factor of 10.

The Army will provide three surrogate Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport platforms with the Robotic Technology Kernel to the Georgia Tech Research Institute for prototypes that require system integration, according to the announcement.

The Army does not plan to pursue follow-on production based on these prototypes, the announcement states.

Last week, the Army issued a separate request for prototype proposals about combat vehicle robotics through the National Advanced Mobility Consortium. Both requests use an Other Transaction Authority the Army signed with NAMC in 2017.