Page 36 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec21-Jan22
P. 36
36 DEFENCE BUSINESS AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
DECEMBER 2021-JANUARY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
ARMY LEADS THE WAY IN ROBOTIC RESUPPLY
Army’s project to develop a convoy of autonomous trucks under its Leader-Follower program recently received a major boost with the successful completion of a series of road trials.
MINISTER for Defence Industry Melissa Price announced the completion of the latest trials, which were undertaken at Army’s proving ground at Monegeetta in regional Victoria, in late October, however ADM understands they had been completed in late July.
The trials were undertaken as part of a $3.5 million pro- gram to develop autonomous leader-follower technology us- ing Army’s Rheinmetall MAN M40 trucks delivered under Land 121 Phase 3. The program is being undertaken by Army’s Robotics and Autonomous Systems Implementation and Co-ordination Office (RICO), in partnership with Dea- kin University’s Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation (IISRI).
Over a two-week period, the combined team successful- ly demonstrated that a five-vehicle convoy of M40 trucks could autonomously navigate the proving ground’s network
NIGEL PITTAWAY | MELBOURNE
of internal roads and verify the system’s obstacle avoidance capability. “The completion of this assessment within one year of the allocation of funding demonstrates the strong industry and Defence partnerships in experimentation, prototyping and exploration of autonomous vehicles and new technologies,” Minister Price said.
For the next body of work, RICO and IISRI will engage with the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) to po- tentially transfer testing to public roads. “There are a num- ber of technical and regulatory challenges to address to get these platforms into common use,” Minister Price added. “The ongoing efforts will enable Army to navigate these challenges.”
The Leader-Follower concept was earlier on display for all to see at the Army Robotics Exposition (ARX) 2021 held in the Brisbane Convention Centre in April and while
