Back to news

November 21, 2018 | International, Land

One company wants to help herd US Army robots

By:

WASHINGTON — Endeavor Robotics has provided quick, off-the-shelf solutions to the U.S. Army for many years, but the Boston-based company is now gaining significant traction at a time when the service is looking to streamline its petting zoo of ground robots.

By necessity, during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army scrambled to buy unmanned ground vehicles that could provide a level of standoff between soldiers and the dangers faced on the battlefield. This resulted in the procurement of roughly 7,000 UGVs from Talons to PackBots to Dragon Runners.

Endeavor, which launched as a private company in 2016 but previously existed as iRobot's defense and security business, supplied PackBots to the service as well as a few other small UGVs. It gained more traction in October 2017, when the company secured a to provide the service a platform it calls Centaur: a medium-sized robot (less than 164 pounds) to provide standoff capability to identify and neutralize explosive hazards.

That served as the groundwork for what the company hopes will be major expansion in the Army, not only delivering an array of systems but supporting a strategy of interoperability.

Future bots

Now Endeavor is setting its sights on two other efforts underway that would transition the Army from its hodgepodge procurement strategy used during the wars in the Middle East to a common chassis for a small, medium and large UGV, all managed by one common controller.

Each system is meant to have a high level of interoperability and plug-and-play capability as missions expand for ground robots and technology improves.

The Army already whittled down the competition in April to provide a Common Robot System-Individual, or CRS-I — a man-packable robot that is less than 25 pounds and highly mobile, equipped with advanced sensors and mission modules for dismounted forces. The design will allow operators to quickly reconfigure for various missions in the field.

Endeavor will compete against QinetiQ for a contract expected to be worth up to $400 million to build more than 3,000 robots. The contract award is anticipated in the first quarter of calendar year 2019.

Endeavor's offering has been kept under wraps, literally and figuratively, with its CRS-I platform covered in a shroud inside of a case at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference.

The Army's other major program — the Common Robotic System-Heavy or CRS-H — is a larger platform expected to weigh 500 to 1,000 pounds. The system will be expected to perform highly dexterous manipulation procedures to disarm vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices from a safe distance.

Endeavor survived a first downselect in the CRS-H competition with plans to use its Kobra platform as the base, Tom Frost, Endeavor's president, told Defense News in a recent interview.

There are now three competitors in the mix as of this summer. The program will have a series of demonstrations that will assist the Army in choosing a winner.

The first demonstration is underway at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and the second is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2019.

Beyond the Army's current programs, Endeavor has been working to refine its technology through programs like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's effort to build a system-of-systems solution that can operate in subterranean environments. It's the only company among a list of participants in academia to secure a $1.5 million contract to participate in the DARPA challenge.

The company's solution consists of the Kobra robot that will enter subterranean environments carrying radio repeaters — based on the company's small, throwable FirstLook robots — and drop them off along the way to continue connectivity as it travels deeper underground, according to Frost.

The system will also carry a four-legged robot supplied from Ghost Robotics. The robot would deploy from Kobra to explore more difficult and rugged terrain, and a quadcopter will investigate vertical shafts and other hard to reach places, Frost described.

“All robots will be linked by the same radio technology and all the data they gather will be assembled into one picture,” Frost said.

The final winner of the challenge will win $2 million in 2021.

An era of autonomy

While robots have been around for years and “are really fantastic,” Frost said, “the way you really recognize the full potential of the ground robots is to make them autonomous.”

The company has been working on capability for its robots to self-build maps of an area, travel autonomously, and report or tag noteworthy information along the way.

All of Endeavor's systems have built-in algorithms, for instance, to detect a human or an explosive.

“They don't require an operator to have their hand on the joystick the entire time,” Frost said. “Our systems have eliminated the joystick altogether” in favor of a touchpad with self-explanatory icons.

Looking deeper into the future, Endeavor is positioning itself to participate in the Army's newest, and potentially largest ever, ground robotics modernization effort, the Robotic Combat Vehicle program, which is just beginning to take shape under Army Futures Command.

https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2018/11/12/one-company-wants-to-help-herd-us-army-robots

On the same subject

  • Navy Exercises Options For Additional Future Frigate Design Work

    August 1, 2018 | International, Naval

    Navy Exercises Options For Additional Future Frigate Design Work

    By: Ben Werner The Navy has exercised options adding several million dollars to the future guided-missile frigate (FFG(X)) conceptual design work being performed by five shipbuilders in contention for the final hull design. The Navy expects bids from the following shipbuilders – Austal USA, Huntington Ingalls Industries, General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine. A final request for proposal is expected in 2019, with the Navy planning to award a single source design and construction contract in 2020, according to the Navy. Ultimately, the Navy plans to build a fleet of 20 frigates Each company was awarded initial contracts of $15 million in February to start design work. The latest contract modification, announced Monday, sends between $6.4 million and $8 million in additional funding to each company to be used fleshing out their designs. “Each company is maturing their proposed ship design to meet the FFG(X) System Specification. The Conceptual Design effort will inform the final specifications that will be used for the Detail Design and Construction Request for Proposal that will deliver the required capability for FFG(X),” Alan Baribeau, a Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman, said in an email to USNI News. Each design for the future frigate competition is based on existing designs the shipbuilders are already producing. The Navy expects to spend between $800 million and $950 million on each hull, which will follow the Littoral Combat Ship. In terms of combat and communications systems, the Navy plans to use what is already deployed on LCS platforms. USNI News understands the new frigates will use the COMBATSS-21 Combat Management System, which uses software from the same common source library as the Aegis Combat System on large surface combatants. Missile systems for the frigate include the canister-launched over-the-horizon missile; the surface-to-surface Longbow Hellfire missile; the Mk53 Nulka decoy launching system and the Surface Electron Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 2 program with SLQ-32(V)6. The ships would also require an unspecified number of vertical launch cells. The frigate design also is expected to include the SeaRAM anti-ship missile defense system and several undersea warfare tools. The complete list of companies awarded contract options on their respective contracts include: Austal USA LLC (Austal), Mobile, Alabama – $6,399,053; initial contract award – $14,999,969 General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine – $7,950,000; initial contract award – $14,950,000 Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi – $7,997,406; initial contract award – $14,999,924 Lockheed Martin Inc., Baltimore, Maryland – $6,972,741; initial contract award – $14,999,889 Marinette Marine Corp., doing business as Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wisconsin – $7,982,991 initial contract award – $14,994,626 https://news.usni.org/2018/07/31/35430

  • Pencils up: Bids are due for Army’s Bradley replacement and it’s only the beginning

    April 19, 2021 | International, Land

    Pencils up: Bids are due for Army’s Bradley replacement and it’s only the beginning

    Here's who will be competing in the initial design phase of the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle Competition.

  • Le projet de futur avion de combat européen prend forme

    February 20, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    Le projet de futur avion de combat européen prend forme

    Les études du futur avion de combat européen sont enfin lancées. L'Allemagne et la France ont signé un contrat de 150 millions d'euros ce jeudi 20 février. Une étape de franchie. Après des mois de rivalités politico-industrielles franco-allemandes, les ministres de la Défense des deux pays ont signé jeudi 20 février à Paris un contrat de 150 millions d'euros devant conduire en 2026 à un premier prototype du futur avion de combat européen. "C'est le contrat qui nous amène sur la route d'un démonstrateur en vol en 2026" du Scaf, le Système de combat aérien futur, résume-t-on au cabinet de Florence Parly, la ministre française des Armées. Un démonstrateur est une sorte de pré-prototype destiné à valider la faisabilité d'un concept. La ministre française et son homologue Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer ont signé l'accord gouvernemental entérinant le lancement de cette phase du projet, dite "phase 1A", prévue pour durer 18 mois. Elles ont également signé avec le secrétaire espagnol à la Défense Ángel Ramírez une lettre d'intention prévoyant l'intégration dans les mois à venir de Madrid, qui a rejoint plus tardivement le projet Scaf, dans les études de recherches et technologies. Le contrat de notification aux industriels proprement dit a été signé par le maître d'œuvre du programme, le délégué général à l'armement (DGA) Jöel Barre. Le SCAF, qui doit remplacer d'ici une vingtaine d'années les Rafale et Eurofighter, "permettra à nos nations de faire face aux menaces et aux défis de la deuxième moitié du XXIe siècle", s'est félicité Florence Parly, saluant un projet "très ambitieux, qui "illustre notre volonté et notre ambition pour l'Europe de la Défense". A l'origine prévue lors du salon du Bourget en juin 2019, la signature de ce contrat, financé "strictement à moitié-moitié" entre les deux pays, a buté sur des tensions entre industriels des deux pays et surtout des craintes côté allemand que l'Allemagne soit perdante dans ce partenariat dont la France a été désignée cheffe de file. Des réticences Le déblocage a été permis la semaine passée par le vote des crédits par le Bundestag, qui ne voulait "pas détériorer les relations franco-allemandes", selon un député. Mais les parlementaires ont exprimé des réticences et exigé de l'exécutif allemand qu'il s'assure dans la longueur que les intérêts du pays ne sont pas bradés, notamment que le projet de futur char franco-allemand (MGCS), dont Berlin est leader, suive un développement parallèle à celui du SCAF. "Il y a des différences de processus entre la France et l'Allemagne, ça ne veut pas dire que les députés allemands sont moins convaincus par le SCAF", a observé devant la presse Dirk Hoke, président exécutif d'Airbus Defense and Space, l'un des principaux industriels impliqués dans le programme. "De temps en temps, il y a des nuages mais on passe au-dessus des nuages et on retrouve le ciel bleu", a pour sa part confié le PDG de Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier, selon qui "c'est vraiment un départ, on ne peut pas revenir en arrière". L'avion de combat de nouvelle génération (dit NGF ou "New Generation Fighter"), dont Dassault est maître d'œuvre avec Airbus comme partenaire principal, est doté d'une enveloppe de 91 millions d'euros. Les études sur le moteur, développé par Safran avec l'allemand MTU, bénéficient de 18 millions d'euros, les "effecteurs déportés", de 19,5 millions. Ces drones, sur lesquels vont plancher Airbus et le missilier MBDA, accompagneront l'avion et leur rôle sera de leurrer ou saturer les défenses adverses. Un quatrième pilier (Airbus et Thales) devra mettre au point un système de "combat collaboratif" permettant de connecter avions, drones, satellites et centres de commandement. Quelque 14,5 millions d'euros y sont consacrés. Enfin, un cinquième pilier doté de 6,5 millions d'euros concerne la cohérence globale du projet et des laboratoires de simulation. L'Espagne, avec Airbus Espagne et l'électronicien de défense Indra, est d'ores et déjà impliquée à hauteur de deux millions d'euros dans le projet de recherche et technologie. C'est une "préfiguration" d'une participation "beaucoup plus massive" d'environ 45 millions d'euros venant s'ajouter "courant 2020" aux 150 millions mis par Paris et Berlin, selon le cabinet de Florence Parly. Les montants en jeu sont certes limités par rapport à l'enveloppe globale d'un programme qui sera opérationnel à l'horizon 2040. "Mais ils vont figer l'organisation de tout le reste du contrat" , plaide-t-on de même source. Un total de 4 milliards d'euros doit être investi d'ici à 2025, 8 milliards d'ici à 2030. https://www.capital.fr/economie-politique/le-projet-de-futur-avion-de-combat-europeen-prend-forme-1362786

All news