The United States Army is exploring the possibilities of autonomous vehicles in several ways. One has gone from so-called platooning, where driverless trucks follow a lead vehicle in convoy to tests of a robotic combat vehicle. “The Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher” weighs just over 16 tons and is a platform for various missile systems.

Continued testing of the technology

The country’s defense forces are also investing in autonomy for other types of vehicles. Darpa (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) is under the US Department of Defense. Among other things, the authority runs the program “Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environment with Resiliency”, Racer for short.

Darpa is now facing the second round of testing of self-driving technology for advanced terrain, where the hardware and software appear to be mounted on a small two-seater Polaris MRZR, judging by the YouTube clip.

“We are looking for a driverless ground vehicle that can go off-road through unstructured terrain at speeds that are only limited by what the sensors can handle, the car’s mechanical capacity and considerations for safety. The program’s minimum goal is that the performance of the software should make it possible to drive at least as fast off-road as a human driver,” says Racers program manager Stuart Young in a statement to New Atlas.

Can avoid rocks and bushes

In the spring’s initial test, the Racer vehicle was driven on six different courses with varying terrain at a speed of approximately 30 km/h. The car’s software managed to identify and avoid the rocks, ditches and bushes that were on the tracks.

Before the second test, the group behind it has developed a new algorithm that is even better at reading the environment and planning the drive. The analysis ability must be tested over a longer distance in desert terrain with larger and steeper hills, on surfaces that give poor grip.