Army ground robotics research program

Abstract

The U.S. Army is undergoing a transformation from Cold War era "heavy" forward-deployed forces arrayed against a monolithic known enemy to lighter, more flexible, U.S.-based forces able to rapidly engage in a full spectrum of military operations. Unmanned systems can potentially contribute towards achieving this goal of a highly capable and flexible ground force. To support this effort, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory has undertaken a long-term research program to support technology development for unmanned ground vehicle systems. Over the course of the past year, this multifaceted effort has made significant technical strides, demonstrating sufficient technological maturity to potentially enable incorporation of semi-autonomous unmanned vehicles into the initial fielding of Future Combat Systems (FCS), while successfully conducting additional research directed toward improved capabilities for later increments of FCS and Land Warrior systems.