NATO STO

Autonomous ground systems are a key part of the future military strategy for many NATO Nations, and commercial companies are racing to develop autonomous systems to be first to market. In this race to field these systems, there is still a lack of understanding of the capabilities and reliability of these systems. One key performance measure of autonomous ground systems is their mobility on-road and off-road. How fast can the system move and how reliably can it reach its destination under a wide range of conditions? How well can these systems maneuver with soldiers under a variety of operations? How are these measures defined? These are important topics that need to be addressed in order to fully field and operationalize these new technologies. Autonomy has been heavily investigated over the past years and passed significant technological leaps in terms of mobility with advanced developments toward self-driving cars, opening new prospects in terms of transportation and societal interactions. Similar to civilian applications, there are huge interests and opportunities not only to keep up with cutting edge technology but also to help improve the reaction and response capabilities of military ground vehicles though intelligent and autonomous mobility. Achieving autonomy is not only about vehicles, it also benefits human operators by preventing them from being exposed on the battlefield. If fully autonomous systems are intended to ultimately function without human intervention, they do not exist yet. Nevertheless, it is important to anticipate these advancements by defining adequate methods and tools to assess future possible autonomous military ground systems. The proposed activity is a follow-on activity to AVT-ET-194, and AVT-308 (CDT) conducted in the USA.