The Automation of Expeditionary Resupply in Austere Environments
(Room 271-272)
02 May 16
1:30 PM
-
2:00 PM
Tracks:
Commercial, Defense, Ground, Research and Development, Technical Track: Ground Robot Research
The Marine Corps is focusing its expeditionary capability to align with the strategic guidance outlined in support of Expeditionary Force 21 (EF21). This guidance outlines the need for increased expeditionary, long range, and mobile capability of the USMC fires systems and standard logistics resupply, as well as the ability to perform logistics resupply in austere and special operations environments. The goal of the Marine fires systems is to provide quick response fire support to the Marine on the ground. In order to get the ammo resupply to the designated target location, an MV-22 or CH-53E aircraft is used. At the landing zone destination site, several Marines are required to off-load the ammo resupply. This off-loading process often takes place in austere and hostile environments putting the personnel at risk. Stratom is developing the eXpeditionary Robo-Pallet (XR-P)™ to automate the loading and unloading of the delivery aircraft for the expeditionary ammo resupply mission. The XR-P will be able to carry two standard pallets of ammo and have the capability to tow a mortar. By automating various aspects of the transport task of the resupply mission hardware, especially the unloading in austere and hostile landing zones, the Marines exposure is significantly reduced. In addition, since the process exploits automation, fewer personnel are required to load, unload and transport the cargo. It is also expected that the utilization of automation will radically reduce mission duration increasing the number of supply missions that can be executed in addition to lowering mission cost. Ultimately the XR-P will have the following autonomous capabilities: • Autonomous aircraft ramp ascent/descent • Autonomous entry and exit of the cargo area of the aircraft • Autonomous waypoint following to a drop-off point with hazard avoidance over off-road terrain with the characteristics of a typical landing zone • Assisted-Teleoperation allowing operator vehicle control until a hazard is detected • Proprioceptive vehicle control over rough terrain Other future autonomous capabilities include person following, road/trail-following and vehicle following. The XR-P will be equipped with several multi-scan lasers, cameras and proprioceptive sensing in order to achieve the current and future autonomous capabilities. It is part of the EFSS mission profile to have a marine within close proximity to the platform, so the autonomous XR-P will be under the supervision of a human operator. As the autonomous capabilities prove-out, the XR-P will require less human oversight. While the XR-P was designed to support the ammo resupply mission, it can also be used to support a wide range of resupply and transport tasks such as transporting a surgical unit or providing water, food, and supplies to a forward operating base. Our current project involves several spiral improvement cycles on a prior version of the XR-P with each spiral followed by extensive operational testing in representative environments and missions scenarios. Operational testing will occur at Twenty Nine Palms in the third quarter of 2016 followed by testing at the Yuma Proving Ground. At the completion of this current, the XR-P will be TRL 7 or 8 and ready to support the Marine Corps EFSS mission as well as many other mission profiles.