GPS World, June 2016

DEFENSEUPDATE control vehicle C2V is simply designated as the leader by the operator and the unmanned vehicles will follow anywhere on the roadway while still performing intelligent road keeping and obstacle detection Two modes of leader tracking are supported coordinate based and direct observation In the primary mode of coordinate based following the lead vehicle transmits its GPSbased position to the follower via the radio data link The follower vehicle correlates this position to the route map and subsequently appends a waypoint to its upcoming path that would bring the follower to a position on the road directly behind the leader In tele operation mode an operator assumes remote control of a single UGV and directly commands vehicle speed steering and other functions via a rugged handheld controller The operator has a selection of either live video feeds or an augmented reality view supported by perception data overlaid on aerial imagery displayed on the OCU display OPERATOR CONTROL UNIT The operator control unit OCU hardware and software FIGURE 4 are designed to be installed in any other tactical vehicle along with a lowcost GPS receiver and radio data link that enables communication with multiple TerraMax UGVs from up to 1 kilometer The OCU allows a single operator to manage coordinated mission command and control of mixed convoys comprised of manned 56 GPS WORLD WWW GPSWORLD COM JUNE 2016 and unmanned vehicles Route information and convoy behaviors can be pre planned saved loaded and modified as needed during operations Touchscreen and function keys allow rapid input using relevant and contextual menus including configurable preset values Live position and status of each vehicle is displayed on a zoom able overhead map and camera feeds from any of the UGVs may be displayed in a familiar picture inpicture format A distilled version of the perception information can be selectively overlaid aiding the operators situational awareness of the vehicles surroundings Remote control and tele operation is supported using a ruggedized game style controller for situations when the operator wants direct control of steering and throttle TRAINING Because pre deployment training opportunities may be limited and any near term requirement for highly specialized troops is untenable ease TERRAMAX HISTORY Oshkosh has been developing and fully autonomous UGVs since 2003 Among its several generations Top In the 2005 Defense Advanced Research Project Agency DARPA Grand Challenge TerraMax was one of only five vehicles to complete the entire 132 mile course Middle In 2007 the TerraMax vehicle was one of 11 qualifiers at the DARPA Urban Challenge Bottom In 2012 a second unmanned MTVR was built to evaluate multiple UGVs supervised by a single operator Magazine cover In 2013 TerraMax UGV M ATV demonstrated capabilities for route clearance missions figure 4 TerraMax UGV operator control unit