DARPA has been working on off-road autonomous vehicles for decades. Now, it is developing an unmanned tank on a combat scale. The Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program has entered the testing phase for the RACER Heavy Platform (RHP), a 6-meter-long and 12-ton tracked “optionally manned combat/engagement vehicle.” Here are the details…
DARPA’s unmanned tank passed its first field test
The RHP is built on the Textron Ripsaw M5 and was tested late last year in a 24-square-kilometer off-road area in Texas. In the tests, the RHP covered over 48 km in autonomous (unmanned) mode. These tests involved various factors such as low-level autonomous control, collection of sensor data sets, mobility assessment, and operation development.
The RACER program started with the Grand Challenge event in 2004, aiming to gather ideas for autonomous vehicle technologies. Only Carnegie Mellon University’s Hummer, named “Sandstorm,” successfully completed the competition. Since then, the RACER program has been working on different autonomous vehicle concepts and tests.
The future use of the RHP might resemble that of the existing Ripsaw. The M5 can be equipped with sensing technology, used as a mine and IED neutralization device, and even armed with a cannon or Javelin launcher. All of this can be done in an unmanned (autonomous) manner.
The RACER program has another field test planned six months from now. In between the major tests, smaller-scale tests will continue. DARPA is awaiting responses to our inquiries for more information about the RHP or its potential future counterpart. Meanwhile, we’ll keep an eye on DARPA’s announcements to learn more about the potential applications of the RHP.
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