Download or read book Autonomy Unmanned Ground Vehicles and the U S Army Preparing for the Future by Examining the Past written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a result of technological maturation, Congressional mandate, and battlefield use, the U.S. Army is currently involved in a tremendous amount of activity surrounding the development of unmanned systems (UMS). While current systems require near-constant supervision, the research and development community is developing capabilities that will greatly increase the autonomy of future UMS. The payoff of employing autonomous unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) in the Army is potentially high in a number of areas. However, the second or third order effects could have negative consequences. This monograph analyzes current U.S. Army efforts surrounding the development of autonomous UGVs. Though the Army's investment of time, money, and manpower in autonomous UGVs has been enormous, the potential benefits of these systems to our Soldiers are too great to refuse to make the investment.
Download or read book Technology Development for Army Unmanned Ground Vehicles written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-02-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) are expected to play a key role in the Army's Objective Force structure. These UGVs would be used for weapons platforms, logistics carriers, and reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition among other things. To examine aspects of the Army's UGV program, assess technology readiness, and identify key issues in implementing UGV systems, among other questions, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research and Technology asked the National Research Council (NRC) to conduct a study of UGV technologies. This report discusses UGV operational requirements, current development efforts, and technology integration and roadmaps to the future. Key recommendations are presented addressing technical content, time lines, and milestones for the UGV efforts.
Download or read book Unmanned Ground Vehicles Comprehensive study of UGVs in Military Applications and Swarm Robotics written by Hardik Modi and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2024-04-17 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Academic Paper in the subject Engineering - Robotics, , language: English, abstract: This paper's goal is to give a concise overview of the various development streams that have led to the current status of the UGV area. Any piece of mechanized equipment that moves on the ground and is used to carry or transport something, but expressly does not carry a human body is considered a UGV in the broadest "dictionary" sense. Unmanned Vehicles are the common part of Military campaigns that reduce the load of soldiers. UVs (Unmanned vehicles) equipped with sensors, sonar, cameras and various algorithms provide real-time information which is helpful for the commanders to take quick decisions. Also, they provide access to the inaccessible areas in the enemy’s territory. They are used in search operations as well as in the rescue operations. They provide day and night vision which is fed to their artificial intelligence pre-trained algorithms that predicts the output to give information. Multiple robots can be combined to increase their working efficiency in the adverse environments. Unmanned vehicles are ones that are in close proximity to the ground and run without the assistance of a human operator. The sensors on Unmanned Ground Vehicles comprise the operating system for research and rescue. The robot is a significant entity in this context because it can mimic team characteristics like collaboration and communication while acting independently and intelligently. UGVs are more efficient in combating terrorism and in remote locations. Unmanned Ground Vehicles help and enhance the front-line soldier positions. This robot's ability is mostly contingent on keeping the soldiers safe or, at the absolute least, reducing the amount of casualties sustained during combat.
Download or read book Conflict in the 21st Century written by Nicholas Michael Sambaluk and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference work examines how sophisticated cyber-attacks and innovative use of social media have changed conflict in the digital realm, while new military technologies such as drones and robotic weaponry continue to have an impact on modern warfare. Cyber warfare, social media, and the latest military weapons are transforming the character of modern conflicts. This book explains how, through overview essays written by an award-winning author of military history and technology topics; in addition to more than 200 entries dealing with specific examples of digital and physical technologies, categorized by their relationship to cyber warfare, social media, and physical technology areas. Individually, these technologies are having a profound impact on modern conflicts; cumulatively, they are dynamically transforming the character of conflicts in the modern world. The book begins with a comprehensive overview essay on cyber warfare and a large section of A–Z reference entries related to this topic. The same detailed coverage is given to both social media and technology as they relate to conflict in the 21st century. Each of the three sections also includes an expansive bibliography that serves as a gateway for further research on these topics. The book ends with a detailed chronology that helps readers place all the key events in these areas.
Download or read book Intelligent Unmanned Ground Vehicles written by Martial H. Hebert and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intelligent Unmanned Ground Vehicles describes the technology developed and the results obtained by the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute in the course of the DARPA Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) project. The goal of this work was to equip off-road vehicles with computer-controlled, unmanned driving capabilities. The book describes contributions in the area of mobility for UGVs including: tools for assembling complex autonomous mobility systems; on-road and off-road navigation; sensing techniques; and route planning algorithms. In addition to basic mobility technology, the book covers a number of integrated systems demonstrated in the field in realistic scenarios. The approaches presented in this book can be applied to a wide range of mobile robotics applications, from automated passenger cars to planetary exploration, and construction and agricultural machines. Intelligent Unmanned Ground Vehicles shows the progress that was achieved during this program, from brittle specially-built robots operating under highly constrained conditions, to groups of modified commercial vehicles operating in tough environments. One measure of progress is how much of this technology is being used in other applications. For example, much of the work in road-following, architectures and obstacle detection has been the basis for the Automated Highway Systems (AHS) prototypes currently under development. AHS will lead to commercial prototypes within a few years. The cross-country technology is also being used in the development of planetary rovers with a projected launch date within a few years. The architectural tools built under this program have been used in numerous applications, from an automated harvester to an autonomous excavator. The results reported in this work provide tools for further research development leading to practical, reliable and economical mobile robots.
Download or read book Developments and Challenges for Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles written by Anthony Finn and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-03-17 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is widely anticipated that autonomous vehicles will have a transformational impact on military forces and will play a key role in many future force structures. As a result, many tasks have already been identified that unmanned systems could undertake more readily than humans. However, for this to occur, such systems will need to be agile, versatile, persistent, reliable, survivable and lethal. This will require many of the vehicles ‘cognitive’ or higher order functions to be more fully developed, whereas to date only the ‘component’ or physical functions have been successfully automated and deployed. The book draws upon a broad range of others’ work with a view to providing a product that is greater than the sum of its parts. The discussion is intentionally approached from the perspective of improving understanding rather than providing solutions or drawing firm conclusions. Consequently, researchers reading this book with the hope of uncovering some novel theory or approach to automating an unmanned vehicle will be as disappointed as the capability planner who anticipates a catalogue of technical risks and feasibility options against his favoured list of component technologies and potential applications. Nevertheless, it is hoped that both will at least learn something of the other’s world and that progress will ensue as a result. For the defence policy and decision maker, this is a "must-read" book which brings together an important technology summary with a considered analysis of future doctrinal, legal and ethical issues in unmanned and autonomous systems. For research engineers and developers of robotics, this book provides a unique perspective on the implications and consequences of our craft; connecting what we do to the deployment and use of the technology in current and future defence systems. Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte
Download or read book Army of None Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War written by Paul Scharre and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2019 William E. Colby Award "The book I had been waiting for. I can't recommend it highly enough." —Bill Gates The era of autonomous weapons has arrived. Today around the globe, at least thirty nations have weapons that can search for and destroy enemy targets all on their own. Paul Scharre, a leading expert in next-generation warfare, describes these and other high tech weapons systems—from Israel’s Harpy drone to the American submarine-hunting robot ship Sea Hunter—and examines the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. “A smart primer to what’s to come in warfare” (Bruce Schneier), Army of None engages military history, global policy, and cutting-edge science to explore the implications of giving weapons the freedom to make life and death decisions. A former soldier himself, Scharre argues that we must embrace technology where it can make war more precise and humane, but when the choice is life or death, there is no replacement for the human heart.
Download or read book Autonomous Vehicles in Support of Naval Operations written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2005-08-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been used in military operations for more than 60 years, with torpedoes, cruise missiles, satellites, and target drones being early examples.1 They have also been widely used in the civilian sector-for example, in the disposal of explosives, for work and measurement in radioactive environments, by various offshore industries for both creating and maintaining undersea facilities, for atmospheric and undersea research, and by industry in automated and robotic manufacturing. Recent military experiences with AVs have consistently demonstrated their value in a wide range of missions, and anticipated developments of AVs hold promise for increasingly significant roles in future naval operations. Advances in AV capabilities are enabled (and limited) by progress in the technologies of computing and robotics, navigation, communications and networking, power sources and propulsion, and materials. Autonomous Vehicles in Support of Naval Operations is a forward-looking discussion of the naval operational environment and vision for the Navy and Marine Corps and of naval mission needs and potential applications and limitations of AVs. This report considers the potential of AVs for naval operations, operational needs and technology issues, and opportunities for improved operations.
Download or read book Unmanned Ground Vehicle written by Fouad Sabry and published by One Billion Knowledgeable. This book was released on 2024-06-18 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is Unmanned Ground Vehicle An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is a vehicle that operates while in contact with the ground without an onboard human presence. UGVs can be used for many applications where it is inconvenient, dangerous, expensive, or impossible to use an onboard human operator. Typically, the vehicle has sensors to observe the environment, and autonomously controls its behavior or uses a remote human operator to control the vehicle via teleoperation. How you will benefit (I) Insights, and validations about the following topics: Chapter 1: Unmanned ground vehicle Chapter 2: DARPA Chapter 3: Autonomous robot Chapter 4: Military robot Chapter 5: Micro air vehicle Chapter 6: Foster-Miller TALON Chapter 7: Mobile robot Chapter 8: TerraMax Chapter 9: Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle Chapter 10: Black Knight (vehicle) (II) Answering the public top questions about unmanned ground vehicle. Who this book is for Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Unmanned Ground Vehicle.
Download or read book Interfaces for Ground and Air Military Robots written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2005-03-21 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early years of robotics and automated vehicles, the fight was against nature and not against a manifestly intelligent opponent. In military environments, however, where prediction and anticipation are complicated by the existence of an intelligent adversary, it is essential to retain human operators in the control loop. Future combat systems will require operators to control and monitor aerial and ground robotic systems and to act as part of larger teams coordinating diverse robotic systems over multiple echelons. The National Research Council organized a workshop to identify the most important human-related research and design issues from both the engineering and human factors perspectives, and develop a list of fruitful research directions. Interfaces for Ground and Air Military Robots summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop.
Download or read book Lethal Autonomous Weapons written by Jai Galliott and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Because of the increasing use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, also commonly known as drones) in various military and para-military (i.e., CIA) settings, there has been increasing debate in the international community as to whether it is morally and ethically permissible to allow robots (flying or otherwise) the ability to decide when and where to take human life. In addition, there has been intense debate as to the legal aspects, particularly from a humanitarian law framework. In response to this growing international debate, the United States government released the Department of Defense (DoD) 3000.09 Directive (2011), which sets a policy for if and when autonomous weapons would be used in US military and para-military engagements. This US policy asserts that only "human-supervised autonomous weapon systems may be used to select and engage targets, with the exception of selecting humans as targets, for local defense ...". This statement implies that outside of defensive applications, autonomous weapons will not be allowed to independently select and then fire upon targets without explicit approval from a human supervising the autonomous weapon system. Such a control architecture is known as human supervisory control, where a human remotely supervises an automated system (Sheridan 1992). The defense caveat in this policy is needed because the United States currently uses highly automated systems for defensive purposes, e.g., Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar (C-RAM) systems and Patriot anti-missile missiles. Due to the time-critical nature of such environments (e.g., soldiers sleeping in barracks within easy reach of insurgent shoulder-launched missiles), these automated defensive systems cannot rely upon a human supervisor for permission because of the short engagement times and the inherent human neuromuscular lag which means that even if a person is paying attention, there is approximately a half-second delay in hitting a firing button, which can mean the difference for life and death for the soldiers in the barracks. So as of now, no US UAV (or any robot) will be able to launch any kind of weapon in an offensive environment without human direction and approval. However, the 3000.09 Directive does contain a clause that allows for this possibility in the future. This caveat states that the development of a weapon system that independently decides to launch a weapon is possible but first must be approved by the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USD(P)); the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)); and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Not all stakeholders are happy with this policy that leaves the door open for what used to be considered science fiction. Many opponents of such uses of technologies call for either an outright ban on autonomous weaponized systems, or in some cases, autonomous systems in general (Human Rights Watch 2013, Future of Life Institute 2015, Chairperson of the Informal Meeting of Experts 2016). Such groups take the position that weapons systems should always be under "meaningful human control," but do not give a precise definition of what this means. One issue in this debate that often is overlooked is that autonomy is not a discrete state, rather it is a continuum, and various weapons with different levels of autonomy have been in the US inventory for some time. Because of these ambiguities, it is often hard to draw the line between automated and autonomous systems. Present-day UAVs use the very same guidance, navigation and control technology flown on commercial aircraft. Tomahawk missiles, which have been in the US inventory for more than 30 years, are highly automated weapons with accuracies of less than a meter. These offensive missiles can navigate by themselves with no GPS, thus exhibiting some autonomy by today's definitions. Global Hawk UAVs can find their way home and land on their own without any human intervention in the case of a communication failure. The growth of the civilian UAV market is also a critical consideration in the debate as to whether these technologies should be banned outright. There is a $144.38B industry emerging for the commercial use of drones in agricultural settings, cargo delivery, first response, commercial photography, and the entertainment industry (Adroit Market Research 2019) More than $100 billion has been spent on driverless car development (Eisenstein 2018) in the past 10 years and the autonomy used in driverless cars mirrors that inside autonomous weapons. So, it is an important distinction that UAVs are simply the platform for weapon delivery (autonomous or conventional), and that autonomous systems have many peaceful and commercial uses independent of military applications"--
Download or read book Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Implications for Military Operations written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) could potentially revolutionize how military force is used in the future. While the early operational experiences with UAVs show great promise, their full range of capabilities is largely unknown. However, it is clear that these technologies will enable military forces to use aerospace power more efficiently, which means at lower cost and with less risk to the humans who pilot aircraft. The broader question is the wisdom of using unmanned aerial vehicles for employing lethal force, and in particular which air power missions are best accomplished by uninhabited, piloted, and autonomous vehicles. The corollary is to examine the essential roles of human pilots or operators in aerospace operations in the twenty-first century. Since it is common to draw distinctions between vehicles with an on-board pilot, vehicles with off-board operators, and autonomous vehicles, this study explores the essential role of pilots and contrasts it with the roles of remotely piloted and autonomous vehicles. The assumption is that piloted, remotely piloted, and autonomous vehicles have advantages and disadvantages in military operations, and that these vary in strategic significance for different levels of conflict. Since it is essential for the U.S. defense establishment to consider the strategic and technological implications of these types of aerial vehicles, this study is devoted to addressing the issues raised by the new generation of aerial vehicles.
Download or read book A Model Based Framework for Predicting Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle System Performance Stuart Harry Young written by Stuart Harry Young and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract : The past decade has seen the rapid development and deployment of unmanned systems throughout the world in both civilian and military applications. Significant development has been led by the Department of Defense (DoD), which has sought to develop and field military systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), with elevated levels of autonomy to accomplish their mission with reduced funding and manpower. As their role increases, such systems must be able to adapt and learn, and make nondeterministic decisions. Current unmanned systems exhibit minimal autonomous behaviors. As their autonomy increases and their behaviors become more intelligent (adapting and learning from previous experiences), the state space for their behaviors becomes non deterministic or intractably complex.Consequently, fielding such systems requires extensive testing and evaluation, as well as verification and validation to determine a system’s performance and the acceptable level of risk to make it releasable – a challenging task. To address this, I apply a novel systems perspective to develop a model-based framework to predict future system performance based on the complexity of the operating environment using newly introduced complexity measures and learned costs. Herein I consider an autonomous military ground robot navigating in complex off-road environments. Using my model and data from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-led experiments, I demonstrate the accuracy with which my model can predict system performance and then validate my model against other experimental results.
Download or read book The Role of Autonomy in DOD Systems Reports on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles UAV Robotics Teleoperation Haptics Centibot Remote Presence UxV DARPA Research and Space and Ground Systems written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-16 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The DSB Task Force on the Role of Autonomy in DoD Systems was asked to study relevant technologies, ongoing research, and the current autonomy-relevant plans of the Military Services, to assist the DoD in identifying new opportunities to more aggressively use autonomy in military missions, to anticipate vulnerabilities, and to make recommendations for overcoming operational difficulties and systemic barriers to realizing the full potential of autonomous systems. The Task Force has concluded that, while currently fielded unmanned systems are making positive contributions across DoD operations, autonomy technology is being underutilized as a result of material obstacles within the Department that are inhibiting the broad acceptance of autonomy and its ability to more fully realize the benefits of unmanned systems. Overall, the Task Force found that unmanned systems are making a significant, positive impact on DoD objectives worldwide. However, the true value of these systems is not to provide a direct human replacement, but rather to extend and complement human capability by providing potentially unlimited persistent capabilities, reducing human exposure to life threatening tasks, and with proper design, reducing the high cognitive load currently placed on operators/supervisors.Unmanned systems are proving to have a significant impact on warfare worldwide. The true value of these systems is not to provide a direct human replacement, but rather to extend and complement human capability in a number of ways. These systems extend human reach by providing potentially unlimited persistent capabilities without degradation due to fatigue or lack of attention. Unmanned systems offer the warfighter more options and flexibility to access hazardous environments, work at small scales, or react at speeds and scales beyond human capability. With proper design of bounded autonomous capabilities, unmanned systems can also reduce the high cognitive load currently placed on operators/supervisors. Moreover, increased autonomy can enable humans to delegate those tasks that are more effectively done by computer, including synchronizing activities between multiple unmanned systems, software agents and warfighters--thus freeing humans to focus on more complex decision making.1.0 Executive Summary * 1.1. Misperceptions about Autonomy are Limiting its Adoption * 1.2. Create an Autonomous Systems Reference Framework to Replace "Levels of Autonomy" * 1.3. Technical Challenges Remain, Some Proven Autonomy Capability Underutilized * 1.4. Autonomous Systems Pose Unique Acquisition Challenges * 1.5. Avoid Capability Surprise by Anticipating Adversary Use of Autonomous Systems * 2.0 Operational Benefits of Autonomy * 2.1. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles * 2.2. Unmanned Ground Systems * 2.3. Unmanned Maritime Vehicles * 2.4. Unmanned Space Systems * 2.5. Conclusion * 3.0 Technical Issues of Autonomy * 3.1. Motivation: What Makes Autonomy Hard * 3.2. Defining Levels of Autonomy is Not Useful * 3.3. Autonomous System Reference Framework * 3.4. Needed Technology Development * 3.5. Technical Recommendations * 4.0 Acquisition Issues of Autonomy * 4.1. Requirements and Development * 4.2. Test and Evaluation * 4.3. Transition to Operational Deployment * 5.0 Capability Surprise in Autonomy Technology * 5.1. Overview of Global Unmanned Systems * 5.2. Unmanned Symmetric Adversary Scenarios * 5.3. Value for Asymmetric Adversaries * 5.4. External Vulnerabilities * 5.5. Self-Imposed Vulnerabilities * 5.6. Recommendations . * Appendix A--Details of Operational Benefits by Domain * A.1. Aerial Systems Strategy * A.2. Maritime Systems * A.3. Ground Systems * A.4. Space Systems * Appendix B--Bibliography * Appendix C--Task Force Terms of Reference * Appendix D--Task Force Membership * Appendix E--Task Force Briefings * Appendix F--Glossary
Download or read book Autonomous Technologies written by William C. Messner and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the years, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Challenges in the United States have galvanized interest in autonomous cars, making them a real possibility in the mind of the public, but autonomous and unmanned vehicles have been increasingly employed in many roles on land, in the water, and in the air. Military applications have received a great deal of attention, with weaponized unmanned aircraft (drones) being the most prominent. However, unmanned vehicles with varying degrees of autonomy already have many civilian applications. Some of these are quite familiar (such as the Roomba autonomous vacuum cleaner), while others remain largely out of the public eye (such as autonomous farm equipment). Additional applications and more capable vehicles are rapidly coming to the markets in the years ahead. This book examines a number of economically important areas in which unmanned and autonomous vehicles, also understood here as autonomous technologies, are already used or soon will be. Co-published by SAE International and AUVSI, Autonomous Technologies: Applications That Matter will assist the reader in identifying profitable opportunities and avoiding costly misconceptions with respect to civilian applications of autonomous vehicle technologies as it brings together chapters on how air, water, and ground vehicles are becoming ever more used and appreciated.
Download or read book Army Support to Future Combat Systems Unmanned Ground Vehicles written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Army support to FCS UGV's (future combat systems unmanned ground vehicles): (1) unmanned systems concept of operations in the future force, (2) technology challenges to achieve FCS end state, (3) priorities driving S & T investment, (4) bridging the gap between current and desired performance capabilities, (5) joint center - unmanned ground vehicles (JC-UGV) for development and transition of robotic ground vehicle technologies.
Download or read book A History of Innovation written by Jon T. Hoffman and published by Department of the Army. This book was released on 2009 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The U.S. Army has a long record of fielding innovations that not only have enhanced its effectiveness on the battlefield but also sometimes had an impact far beyond warfare. General Editor Jon T. Hoffman has brought together eleven authors who cover the gamut from the invention of the M1 Garand rifle between the world wars through the development of the National Training Center in the 1980s ... This work is neither a historical account of how the Army has adapted over time nor a theoretical look at models that purport to show how innovation is best achieved. Instead, it captures a representative slice of stories of soldiers and Army civilians who have demonstrated repeatedly that determination and a good idea often carry the day in peace and war. Despite the perception of bureaucratic inertia, the institution's long history of benefiting from the inventiveness of its people indicates that it is an incubator of innovation after all"--Publisher's website.
