UGVs originally rose to prominence in Iraq and Afghanistan for their use in detecting and neutralizing IEDs, mines, and other threats facing combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams. But the widespread use of and casualties resulting from IEDs in Southwest Asia eventually led the military to take a serious look at how larger unmanned systems might reduce casualties by taking humans out of harm’s way.

At the Fire & Maneuver Integration Division of the Marine Corps Combat Development Directorate, Combat Engineer Capabilities Integration Officer Lt. Col. David Jarvis leads the USMC side of joint UGV development.

“One agreement to achieve commonality is a classification of robots in four different categories – man-transportable, vehicle-transportable, self-transportable, or vehicular robot using a robotic appliqué kit – brains and motors you can put on existing vehicles in our inventory to turn them into robots,” he said.

“That has a lot of Marine Corps interest, to take the DDD work away from warfighters. Driving long distances in convoys can be pretty dull and dangerous; robotic appliqué kits can enhance safety because the robot is always alert.”

That joint effort has led to a memorandum of agreement to determine which service will be the lead in which category to avoid duplication of efforts, with the other then leveraging that development for its own needs.

“The Marine Corps, for example, has taken the lead on a tactical robotic controller, basically a common controller for different classes of robots, not only UGVs but also UAVs,” Jarvis said. “That way, when buying future robots, the price tag can exclude separate operational controllers. You also don’t want multiple controllers in the field.

“The ‘Unmanned Ground Systems Roadmap’ signed a few weeks ago outlines future use. The shift won’t have a big impact on current systems, but may impact future development. Wherever Marines go, UGVs must follow.”

The Army has taken the lead on the other categories, except the robotic appliqué kit, which is a joint program, with MCWL conducting a joint capabilities study.

Jarvis believes appliqué kits for existing vehicles are most likely to see service first.

“The Ground Unmanned Support Surrogate, a COTS [commercial off-the-shelf] Polaris [Industries Inc.] vehicle with brains and actuators to make it into a robotic system, has been proven in concept. Now they are taking it to a different step, looking at different vehicles, such as a Marine Corps vehicle,” he said.

“One candidate for that is the … Light Tactical Vehicle, which is a smaller vehicle than any in our current inventory, looking a bit like an old Willys Jeep. That would be used as a squad support vehicle – optionally manned. MCWL has been doing experiments with that, using different infantry units to evaluate.”

 

Walking with Warriors

Lightening the load on the individual warfighter is another component of robotic logistics support, taken down to the squad level.

“The combat Marine today is loaded down with 100 to 120 pounds of weapons and supplies. We would like to develop something, whether a robotic vehicle or even a robotic squad member – whether humanoid or shaped like a mule,” Jarvis said. “The home run on this one is not just doing a vehicle that can follow a squad, but eventually become a member of that squad. You could have a fire team with one robot that could carry part of the sustainment load, even be weaponized.