Stratom will develop a personnel safety system for the US Army’s RCV-L

The US Army has awarded a contract of Stratom to provide robotic combat vehicle (RCV-L) lights with a perimeter safety system for autonomous vehicles (P-SAV).

The P-SAV is a personnel safety system that will support the RCV-L with 360° sensor coverage. It comes with a computer system that uses machine learning to track and recognize objects near the combat vehicle.

In addition to the computer system, the stand-alone application suite will include software based on a robotic operating system (ROS2) to transmit the necessary information to the RCV operator to perform specific operations.

Stratom Chief Roboticist Andrew Likas said: “This decision illustrates that our investment in developing the Summit Off-Road Autonomy Platform is already paying dividends.

“We will use Summit and the recently developed eXpeditionary Robotic-Field Artillery Autonomous Resupply (XR-FAAR) vehicle platform as a replacement for the RCV-L to complete rigorous testing of the P-SAV prototype before deploying the module on the RCV-L .”

The ROS2 software will support the unmanned ground combat vehicle in handling challenging tasks including personnel identification and situational awareness.

The P-SAV is designed to provide reliable results in all weather conditions. The easy-to-use system can also be configured to suit more vehicle platforms.

Stratom President and CEO Mark Gordon said, “As robotic vehicles are increasingly used in applications where the presence of a human operator may be inconvenient, dangerous or impossible, we are excited to bring our successful previous performance to RCV-L program and continue to support the government in its goal of transitioning to autonomous systems.”

In 2020, QinetiQ and Pratt Miller Defense (recently acquired by Oshkosh Defense) delivered the first of four RCV-Ls to the US Army Ground Vehicle Systems Command’s Combat Capability Development Center.