Overview of the Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System

Abstract

The Mobile Detection Assessment Response System (MDARS) is a joint Army-Navy effort to field interior and exterior autonomous platforms for security and inventory assessment functions at DoD warehouses and storage sites. Based on a Cybermotion K2A Navmaster platform designed for singular operation in structured office environments, the MDARS Interior platform has incorporated additional collision avoidance, intruder detection and inventory assessment systems under a Multiple Robot Host Architecture (MRHA). The MRHA is a distributed multiprocessing system that provides coordinated control of multiple autonomous vehicles from a single host console. The increased functionality of the base platform required the addition of sensor equipment and accompanying distributed processing. The MDARS Interior platform has successfully demonstrated sustained autonomous navigation within a semi-structured warehouse environment (with few walls and within which odd-shaped objects move about unpredictabl...