News

Marine West: unmanned systems under the spotlight

January 28, 2010

Several UGV and UAS development initiatives drew the spotlight at the 2010 edition of the ‘Marine West' military exposition, co-sponsored by Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps League, and Marine Corps Systems Command.

As an example, iRobot presented an expansion of their UGV families with potential applications for their miniature LANdroid platforms.

‘This comes out of a research project that DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] is doing,' explained company official Mary Beth Bruggeman. ‘The programme is called LANdroids - for Local Area Network. And we have just supplied the robotic platform for the programme. DARPA is teaming with other companies to do everything else. And essentially the purpose of this platform is to go out and autonomously find the best radio network available in an area. So the idea would be that you could set 100 of these loose in a city and they are going to swarm around, climbing, moving, going up hills and going around buildings. With no user input at all their goal in life will be to find the best vantage points for radio communications. Then they will act as repeaters and radio relays so that you can extend your communications several miles when it use to be 500 meters.'

Asked about the small video sensor on the prototype system, Bruggeman reiterated, ‘The idea is not to be able to look and see. The idea for this robot is simply to find the best network available. But I bring this here not because I think the Marine Corps is particularly interested in the DARPA programme, but rather because marines are extremely interested in a ‘throwable' robot. So we, I think, as a company, will take this idea and this concept of a platform and work it into a ‘throwable' recon and surveillance robot under five pounds.'

‘Here's the concept. You throw it over a building or into a building or up a stairwell. It gives you a robotic forward observer. That's the idea. You stick two of these in your cargo pockets. A platoon might have five or six of them. And you can toss them into a room. Instead of having a Marine go in there now you just drive a little robot in. And if there are hostiles in there, now you know it. Or if there are women and children in there you know that too,' she explained

QinetiQ North America used the show to acquaint attending marines with some of the latest developments in their Talon Gen IV, MAARS [Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System], and Dragon Runner UGVs.

As one example, Marty Foley, a manager in the company's Technology Solutions Group, pointed to the addition of a 360 degree rotating ‘shoulder' on the Talon Gen IV with enhanced lifting abilities, noting, ‘It can now lift upwards of 85 pounds.'

‘We introduced those enhancements about four months ago and they are already out in the field,' he added. ‘I can't say where they are but they are fielded.'

He also noted that the armed MAARS is currently undergoing selected user evaluations.

The potential expansion of armed capabilities for UAS platforms was raised in a display from General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS).

According to Sean Ridley, an engineer at GD-OTS, the company is still in development on an application for ‘dropping' 81mm precision guided mortar munitions from UAS platforms.

‘It's been mostly a company funded development but there is some external work that the government has asked us to do,' he said. ‘And they have provided funding for testing, and so forth, that we have initiated. But it's mostly been internal funding. There has been a lot of design work, a lot of component verification and proof-out, that's been going on internally.'

Asked if it was being developed for a specific UAS platform, he responded, ‘The base design is what we're trying to prove out. The whole airdrop mortar concept has basically never been done, so they've been trying to prove out every aspect of the munition at the component level.'

Although characterised as a ‘lightweight' system, the early stage of the design process precludes discussion of specific system weights.

‘There are a lot of components for an artillery piece that has never been airdropped,' Ridley observed. ‘So all of that is still being designed.'

Near term activities through the remainder of 2010 appear to focus on continued testing.

‘I know that they have got some airdrops planned for later on this year,' he added.

By Scott R. Gourley, Camp Pendleton, California