Page 37 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec21-Jan22

DECEMBER 2021-JANUARY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS 37
systems (RAS), including Artificial Intelligence (AI); Quan- tum Technologies, including Quantum Sensing, Comput- ing and Communications; and finally, power and energy – looking at advantages to be gained through electrification on the battlefield. The Leader-Follower program sits within the RAS area and, like the other two areas of focus, has a strategy or roadmap to support it.
“There are five areas where we’re trying to leverage RAS technology. One of those is looking at efficiency – how we can use RAS and AI to improve sustainment of a deployed force – could we re-imagine our supply chain and distribu- tion methods? How can we use AI to do predictive logistics etc. We’re also looking at how robotic systems might be able to help us with casualty evacuation within our medi- cal chain and perform maintenance more efficiently,” COL Smith explains. “That’s all within the efficiency field and that’s where the Leader-Follower project spun out from.”
LEADER-FOLLOWER CONCEPT
The Leader-Follower program was developed to study how to increase efficiency in the logistics chain, both in terms of hu- man resources and time. This efficiency
will become more important as Army
moves towards future capabilities such
as protected mobile fires, long-range “THE LEADER-FOLLOWER
artillery and the mobility offered by the Land 400 vehicles – all of which will add further burdens to the logistics system.
PROGRAM WAS DEVELOPED TO STUDY HOW TO INCREASE
“For example, if every truck has two
drivers, each of which will drive around EFFICIENCY IN THE
nine hours each day, it means that ve-
hicle is not moving supplies around for
a quarter of each 24-hour period. I’m
trying to ‘buy back’ that 25 per cent by accepting that the human workforce is
the rate-limiting factor of our logistics
and doing it differently,” COL Smith explains.
LOGISTICS CHAIN, BOTH IN TERMS OF HUMAN RESOURCES AND TIME”
ADM made mention of the technology in our coverage of the event, space precluded a closer analysis at that time. Happily, the recent milestone has provided an opportunity to speak with Colonel Robin Smith, Director of RICO, to learn more of the program and why it is of interest to the wider Army.
WHAT IS RICO?
The Robotics and Autonomous Systems Implementation and Co-ordination Office is part of Army’s Future Land Warfare Branch within the Land Capability Division and its remit is to study emerging technologies and determine if it could have an impact on how Army will fight in the future, or what threats they might pose if they are deployed against it.
In terms of technology, COL Smith says RICO has three areas of focus at the present time: Robotic and Autonomous
“If we didn’t have to crew every single vehicle, we could start to change the arrangements by which we could poten- tially do logistics and long-haul transport in the future. The lead vehicle could be controlled remotely in a similar way we currently use Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), and the ful- ly-autonomous follower vehicles are given a path by the lead vehicle. The limiting factor on the use of these vehicles then becomes fuel, or reliability from a maintenance perspective.”
Conversations around how these goals could be achieved began around two and a half years ago and RICO eventu- ally approached Deakin University and IISRI, led by Pro- fessor Saeid Nahavandi. Within 12 months from contract signature, IISRI had demonstrated a prototype ability to deploy two trucks in the ‘one lead, one follow’ role. “We learned a lot about the sensor suite we might need onboard these types of platforms and the integration of those sensor suites,” COL Smith added. “The AI that learns the envi- ronment by which the vehicle has to make decisions and
ABOVE LEFT: The latest trials were undertaken at Army’s proving ground at Monegeetta in regional Victoria
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