Robo-convoy: army tests 'hands-free' driving for troop protection.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Tactical Vehicles

* FORT A.P. HILL Va. -- The Army is in the process of testing a new system to allow drivers in truck convoys to keep their hands off steering wheels and their eyes open to spot roadside threats.

The convoy active safety technologies (CAST) system is being developed by the U.S. Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center based in Warren, Mich.

The program is designed to develop a system at a cost of less than $20,000 per truck.

The goal is to allow trucks or humvee operators who are following a lead driver to stop driving and use their time to scan their environment for roadside bombs or other threats. A secondary goal is to cut down on driver fatigue, said TARDEC engineers working on the project.

"We're trying to use existing technology to enhance our soldier performance while reducing the threat exposure," said Edward Schoenherr, project manager of TARDEC's intelligent ground systems.

The program is a marriage of robotics technology and advanced sensors, fueled by the need to mitigate the damage done to trucks by improvised explosive devices.

Roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost thousands of lives. TARDEC engineers are trying to determine whether taking a driver's eyes off the road and allowing him to scan his surroundings can lessen the bombs' impact.

TARDEC brought two trucks to the little-used Fort A.P. Hill--located in northeastern Virginia, about 90 minutes south of the Pentagon--to carry out human factor and technical tests, and display the system to journalists and senior military officials.

The system uses four sensors, computer algorithms, communications links and a box with only a few buttons and lights to carry out its task.

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Trucks can be in either "follower" or "leader" modes. Lead trucks do not drive autonomously, however they transmit telemetry data to the follower trucks.

There are only four buttons: On, Off, Leader and Follower. A light that flashes green, amber or red tells the driver how well the system is functioning. Green tells him that there is "high confidence" that the trucks are in contact, amber denotes caution and red means the driver should retake the wheel.

The box on the final system, if it goes into full development, may look different, said engineers with the prime contractor, Perceptek of Littleton, Colo. They may, for example, integrate voice warnings instead of the high-pitched squeal that sounds...