Army, industry see bright future for robotic vehicles.

• Author: Harper, Jon

The Army expects robotics and autonomy to be important components of its ground combat vehicle fleet in the coming decades. Members of industry are pushing ahead in this field as the service maps out its future.

Army officials are gearing up to pursue the next-generation combat vehicle, also known as the NGCV.

"Robotics and autonomous systems are certainly going to be a part of the concept," said Col. William Nuckols, Jr., director of mounted requirements at the Army Maneuver Center of Excellence.

"When you start thinking about future possibilities and the effect that robotics might play, it could be a gamechanger," he said at the Association of the United States Army's Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.

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In March, the Army sent out a solicitation for market research and hosted an industry day to discuss plans to partner on prototyping efforts.

Topping the list of desired capabilities in the survey were "autonomous and intelligent systems."

The service plans to develop technology demonstrators to further assess what's available and inform requirements. They are to be built collaboratively with industry, Nuckols said.

A final request for white papers is slated for May, and a contract award for prototype work is expected in September.

The Army hopes to have the prototyping project completed no later than fiscal year 2022. The service aims to field a next-generation combat vehicle by the early 2030s, but it could come sooner, according to Nuckols.

"As of today we're not certain if NGCV is going to be a replacement for the Bradley--in other words if it's going to be an infantry fighting vehicle --or if it's going to be a replacement for... the Abrams [tank], or potentially both," he said.

The Abrams could potentially be replaced by an autonomous vehicle with the same amount of lethality as today's tanks, he said.

The technology that emerges from the NGCV project might not just be used to create a single type of platform. It could end up being applied to "a family of vehicles," he noted.

A system doesn't have to be completely unmanned to capitalize on autonomy. The Army wants to automate certain functions on manned vehicles to reduce the burden on personnel and operate more efficiently. Target acquisition is one such function that could potentially fit the bill, he said.

"When we say robotics and autonomous systems, we're not limiting that to separate things flying around in space," Nuckols said.

While these technologies hold enormous potential, they will likely be introduced gradually into the ground combat vehicle fleet, experts said.

"The Army needs to take baby steps to achieve some type of...