The US Army has awarded a new contract to Robotic Research to expand work on its Autonomous Unmanned Systems Teaming and Collaboration (AUSTC) for the counter weapons of mass destruction (Counter-WMD) mission.
Valued at $50m, the contract has been awarded by the US Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) for a period of five years.
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Robotic Research president Alberto Lacaze said: “It is a great honour to expand our work for the US Army, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and the Special Forces community on the family-of-systems for autonomous collaborative robotic teaming in support of challenging subterranean missions.
“The Robotic Research team shares the army leadership’s commitment to rapidly fielding effective autonomous counter-WMD solutions for our nation’s warfighters.”
The AUSTC effort is designed based on prior and ongoing Robotic Research’s small business innovative research contracts in support of the Mobile Autonomous Counter-WMD System, Increment B (MACS-B) programme.
The MACS-B programme offers a wide range of subterranean mission objectives such as mapping and reconnaissance; location and characterisation of WMD materials, relay of intelligence and situational awareness to ground forces and commanders to make informed decisions in support of military operations; and autonomous teaming and collaborative operations to include unmanned ground and air vehicles.
The AUSTC focuses on increasing autonomy, 3D / 4D mapping, localisation, target ID, tracking, collective 3D visualisation, weapons system integration of unmanned autonomous systems and subterranean communications.
The AUSTC and MACS-B programmes have been designed to improve autonomous unmanned systems teaming and collaboration capabilities in subterranean environments for the US Army and Special Forces units.
