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

  • Evolving Australia's truck weighing programme
    March 1, 2013
    Regulating heavy truck weight isn’t all about sensors in the road… this year marks a significant point in the progression of Australia’s Intelligent Access Programme as its administrators attempt to answer the scheme’s critics. Jon Masters reports. Australia’s Intelligent Access Programme (IAP), the country’s telematics-based system of reg­ulating movement of the heaviest vehicles, is now five years old. The IAP is administered by Transport Certification Australia (TCA) whose general manager for strategic d
  • Volvo Cars and Uber join forces to develop autonomous driving cars
    August 19, 2016
    Swedish car maker Volvo Cars is to join forces with ride-sharing company Uber to develop next generation autonomous driving cars, alliance marks the beginning of what both companies view as a longer term industrial partnership. The two companies have signed an agreement to establish a joint project that will develop new base vehicles that will be able to incorporate the latest developments in autonomous driving technologies, up to and including fully autonomous driverless cars. The base vehicles will be
  • Hard shoulder running aids uniform traffic flow and safer driving
    January 23, 2012
    David Crawford detects a market for European experience. Well-established now in at least three European countries, Hard Shoulder Running (HSR) on motorways is exciting growing interest in the US. A November 2010 Report to Congress by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), on the Efficient Use of Highway Capacity, notes the role of HSR in the European-style Active Traffic Management (ATM) strategies now being recommended for implementation in the US where, until recently, they were virtually unknown.
  • Kapsch says US purchase will have world-wide impact
    June 3, 2014
    Peter Ummenhofer, head of the ITS Business Unit at Kapsch TrafficCom, discusses what the recent acquisition of US ATMS specialist Transdyn will mean for the company and the ITS sector. Even a brief perusal of Kapsch’s portfolio lends credence to the company’s assertion that it is more than ‘just a tolling systems and services supplier’. Over the past few years, the company has added road safety enforcement to its offering with significant commercial vehicle operations capabilities, including weigh in motion