Skip to main content

Autonomous ATV aids hazardous route clearance missions

In another application for autonomous vehicles, Oshkosh Defense has integrated its TerraMax unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) technology into an Oshkosh MRAP all-terrain vehicle (M-ATV) to demonstrate capabilities for route-clearance missions. M-ATV and other heavy and medium tactical wheeled vehicles equipped with TerraMax UGV technology enables one or multiple vehicles in a route clearance convoy to operate autonomously, resulting in fewer troops exposed to threats. The technology is designed as a modul
May 14, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
In another application for autonomous vehicles, Oshkosh Defense has integrated its TerraMax unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) technology into an Oshkosh MRAP all-terrain vehicle (M-ATV) to demonstrate capabilities for route-clearance missions.

M-ATV and other heavy and medium tactical wheeled vehicles equipped with TerraMax UGV technology enables one or multiple vehicles in a route clearance convoy to operate autonomously, resulting in fewer troops exposed to threats.

The technology is designed as a modular kit that can be integrated into modern production vehicles or retrofitted on to legacy platforms. Vehicles equipped with the TerraMax UGV technology can seamlessly collaborate with manned vehicles to carry out missions at full operational pace. TerraMax UGVs function autonomously across varying terrains and in all weather conditions, day or night and original vehicle payload and performance are retained.

The TerraMax UGV system can be enhanced to intelligently incorporate counter-IED payloads such as ground-penetrating radar and mine rollers. The TerraMax operator control unit also can provide over-the-horizon situational awareness to accompanying manned vehicles. The system is highly interoperable, using a widely adopted, non-proprietary open architecture messaging standard that enables modularity and easy integration of new subsystems.

“The clearance of threats like IEDs, mines and unexploded munitions pose challenges that global military forces have faced since World War II, and are expected to continue long after Afghanistan,” said John Urias, president of Oshkosh Defense. “Our TerraMax UGV technology can bring autonomous capabilities to existing manned vehicle platforms, like the M-ATV, to remove troops from targeted routes and provide greater standoff distance from explosive threats. It also has force-multiplication benefits with one operator controlling several vehicles, so logistics operations can be successfully completed with fewer troops.”

Related Content

  • Transport technology transforming bus stops in Los Angeles
    January 20, 2012
    David Crawford reports on a pioneering blend of transport technology and aesthetic By gaining a design award before installation has even started, the US$6.9 million City of Santa Monica (California)'s Big Blue Bus Shelter and Branding Package has ensured early interest among what it expects to be a new wave of transit riders. The American Institute of Architects' Los Angeles chapter's recently conferred 'Next LA Citation Award for Architecture', given for design excellence in projects as yet unbuilt, comm
  • Advanced in-vehicle user interface - future developments
    February 1, 2012
    Dave McNamara and Craig Simonds, Autotechinsider LLC, look at human-machine interface development out to 2015. The US auto industry is going through the worst crisis it has faced since the Great Depression. But it has embraced technologies that will produce the best-possible driving experience for the public. Ford was the first OEM to announce in-car internet radio and SYNC, its signature-branded User Interface (UI), is held up as the shining example of change embracement.
  • Celebration in the air at Econolite
    May 1, 2012
    Econolite Group will use the 2012 ITS America Annual Meeting & Eposition to demonstrate its latest detection offerings - the Autoscope Duo (hybrid radar/video system), and RTMS - as well as featuring its Centracs ATMS and Centracs Adaptive software solutions. Indeed, there will be a celebratory air as the group continues its milestone celebration of the 100th Centracs order – achieved within three years of introduction. To be installed in Georgia, the advanced traffic management system software will be depl
  • Infrastructure and the autonomous vehicle
    December 12, 2014
    Harold Worrall ponders the effect of autonomous vehicles on transportation infrastructure. For the last century the transportation industry has been focused on the supply of infrastructure to support the ever growing fleet of vehicles and the greater number of miles covered by each vehicle. Our focus has been planning, funding, designing, building and maintaining roadways. Politicians, engineers, planners, financial managers … all of us have had this focus. We have experienced demand growth since the first