Six companies are competing for cash awards and possible Army contracts to field autonomous vehicles under the Army Pathway for Innovation and Technology program.
Soldiers in Hawaii this week tested autonomous ground vehicles the Army could potentially use to shuttle supplies, ammo and wounded fighters during jungle warfare.
Six companies are competing for cash awards and possible Army contracts to field autonomous vehicles under the Army Pathway for Innovation and Technology program.
The testing — held at this training area eastern side of Oahu — is overseen by the program’s Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate. It is the Army entity tasked with getting new technology quickly into the hands of soldiers, in this case through what is called an accelerated capability event.
U.S. Army Pacific set the priorities for this week’s event, seeking autonomous systems that can be used for logistics resupply, movement of weapons and ammo across battlefields and evacuating wounded fighters from the front, said Col. Chris Hill, head of the directorate, in an interview Monday at the test site.
The role of soldiers in the events is “invaluable,” he said.
“They are the ones giving the on-the-ground feedback,” Hill said. “It’s not an engineer back in Huntsville. It’s not an engineer, you know, back in D.C. It’s the soldier that’s giving it directly to the company.”
This is the first accelerated capability event held in conjunction with U.S. Army Pacific, and plans call for them to take place quarterly, Hill said.
The ground drones are tested on paths slicing through jungle growth, swamp and mud. They are assessed for endurance, ease of use, adaptability for a given task and vulnerability to electronic warfare.
The soldiers who operate them were given relatively quick training by vendors.
“I picked it up quickly — 30 minutes is all it took,” said Spc. Cory Johnson, of the 25th Infantry Division’s 3rd Mobile Brigade, after testing the battery-powered Siderunner Pro made by Denver-based Stridar Inc. “I don’t play video games or have any background of that,” he said. “I mean, anybody of any age can pick it up easily.”
The Siderunner can carry up to 500 pounds over off-road terrain and operate for about 15 hours on a charge, Adithya Narayanan, a Stridar software engineer, said at the test site. It has been used in Ukraine, and like most other vehicles tested in the event, the modular Siderunner can be fitted to carry supplies, communications and radar equipment, ammo or medevac litters, he said.
It costs $45,000 with software and operating computer, Narayanan said.
BlueSky Innovations, based in North Carolina, has opted for brawn with jEKYLL, which runs on tracks and can tow up to 22,000 pounds, Mark Weathersby, the company’s director of robotics, said at the site.
The electric-powered vehicle, with a top speed of 10 mph, can carry almost 2,000 pounds, and at only 31 inches wide, Weathersby said, “You could drive it through your front door.”
For speed, Detroit-based Dataspeed Inc. offered up the Tweedle, which can carry up to 500 pounds while towing another 1,300, said Olivia Herbert, a software engineer at Dataspeed. The gasoline-powered engine allows it to reach a top speed of 60 mph with a range of roughly 125 miles on a single tank, Herbert said at the site.
It is the size of a large riding lawnmower — one with large, knobby tires. The fully autonomous-equipped model costs about $30,000, she said. The winning companies will be announced Friday.
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