Page 89 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2021

JUNE 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LAND FORCES ARX & AID 87
back and forth through an obstacle course. Early said the prototype system can fly at 200-250 km/hr, and is capable of accelerating from zero to 100 km/hr in just 0.6 seconds. Its speed and manoeuvrability, coupled with an extremely low FPV latency of around 30 milliseconds, would ap- pear to lend itself to congested urban operations, includ- ing the interior of buildings. Although initially designed for traditional ISR operations, future development could conceivably see it used as an effector in itself and also in AI-enabled swarms of drones.
Further up the autonomous flying vehicle scale, AMSL Aero displayed a full-size cabin prototype
of its Vertiia electric vertical take-off and
landing (VTOL) platform, fitted in casual-
ABOVE: Among the concepts demonstrated at ARX 2021 was a full-size cabin prototype of AMSL Aero’s Vertiia electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) platform, fitted in casualty-evacuation configuration.
tonomous Systems Group demonstrated a tracked EPE/ HDM-supplied autonomous vehicle fitted with a “Cat- pack” integrated perception system, including Wildcat Si- multaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) software’ The system establishes a situational awareness of the
ty-evacuation configuration, with two seats and a litter. The Vertiia is designed for the air ambulance and civil markets and capa- ble of flying the equivalent of five passen- gers more than 250km, at speeds greater than that currently achieved by helicopters.
“AMSL AERO DISPLAYED A FULLSIZE CABIN PROTOTYPE OF ITS VERTIIA ELECTRIC VERTICAL TAKEOFF AND LANDING (VTOL) PLATFORM.”
vehicle’s surroundings, including location within its operating area and the topogra- phy which surrounds it. The demonstration at ARX 2021 represented an autonomous mine-clearance exercise in a GPS-denied environment.
The Wildcat system uses a 3D Light De- tection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanner to provide the location of an object and on- board cameras for determining what an object is. Data61 received US$6.5 million of funding over three years from US De- fense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), under the latter’s Subterranean
CEO and Founder Andrew Moore told
ADM the cabin section, and 15 sub-scale
flying platforms, were funded under a De-
fence Innovation Hub Phase 2 contract to
explore the development of a fast VTOL
system capable of carrying 300 kilorams of cargo into a battlefield area and return with a medic and single pa- tient. From an export potential standpoint, Moore said the company has submitted a proposal to the US Army under the latter’s Joint Tactical Autonomous Resupply System (JTARS) program and is also engaging with the US Air Force’s Agility Prime program. The full-scale prototype Vertiia is expected to fly for the first time from Sydney’s Bankstown Airport in mid-year.
Challenge program. Principal research consultant of the company’s Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Dr Elliot Duff told ADM that Data61 is looking to interest Austra- lian robotics companies in evaluating technologies such as Wildcat through its Early Adopter Program (EAP).
Fortitude Valley-based science and defence SME Ray- tracer has developed the Carbon and Spotlite software to provide multi-domain command and control of remote sys- tems. At ARX 2021 the company demonstrated its ability to easily and precisely control a seven-axis robotic arm, while
Closer to the ground, CSIRO’s Data61 Robotics and Au-
ADM ROYA GHODSI