Unmanned Systems Technology 002 | Scion SA-400 | Commercial UAV Show report | Vision sensors | Danielson Trident I Security and safety systems | MIRA MACE | Additive manufacturing | Marine UUVs

63 hills, obstacles such as pot holes and ditches, complex bends, non-line of sight testing and urban areas. There is also a fully integrated control room with line of sight of the whole UGV proving ground to provide a safe and secure test track location for all of MIRA’s UGV development, as well as giving UGV operators training in a safe and controlled environment. MACE 3 is the third generation of the demonstrator, extending the research and learning of the previous versions into a Land Rover Defender. MACE started out as a load carriage vehicle for the MoD, carrying kit, food, water and batteries in a ‘follow me’ mode that would simply follow the vehicle in front. However, the initial specification of this mode highlighted part of the problem. The project didn’t really develop as the use case was unclear – what would happen if for example the vehicle broke down, or the truck in front went into a ditch? So the MACE platform has been extended to add fully autonomous operation and a remote control mode alongside the follow-me mode, as well as the ability for a driver to jump in and take manual control. This puts the technology challenge right at the heart of the development of driverless cars, which also have to combine autonomous mode with the ability for the driver to take over. A key issue here is space. A fully autonomous military vehicle can have the control electronics installed in the cockpit, but for MACE 3 the electronic control system – called the Vehicle Integration Module (VIM) – has to be small enough to allow a person to drive as well as be remotely controlled by an operator. This contrasts with another remotely operated UGV platform developed by MIRA, called Panama. This is designed to be always unmanned as it is aimed at applications such as finding a route through hazardous terrain and locating improvised explosive devices (IEDs), with an operational range of up to 20 km. It is based on a modified Land Rover Snatch which was a surplus item and which could be a sacrificial vehicle if it triggered a roadside IED. It was first used in 2011 by the British Army, and the contract to use it has been extended to 2030. The difference between MACE 3 and Panama comes down to communications links. Panama is controlled remotely over a secure high-bandwidth radio network; MACE 3 is controlled over the Internet. The difference between the two approaches is how robust that comms link would be: MACE has less complex needs in terms of range and data rate as the autonomy lessens the need for data. For MACE 3 you can assign it a route and set it a task to complete in an autonomous manner. You can set the parameters of the route and the task but it is following predefined control code. It can follow a route on GPS, or predefined routes using a set of map coordinates. There are several key lessons from the evolution of the UGVs. The first is that using an optical system gives the platform an increased level of autonomy rather than relying on map or GPS data for positioning. The second key lesson is that the design of the platform also depends on the level of autonomy required – this is the thing that designers are still not getting their heads around, says MIRA. The key question is: what do you want the autonomous platform to do? Deciding on the task to be carried out determines the algorithms and the accuracy of MIRA MACE | Dossier Unmanned Systems Technology | Spring 2015 The Vehicle Integration Module sits at the heart of the MACE 3 architecture to pull together all the separate functional elements of the design The separate algorithms for controlling MACE 3 are implemented in an FPGA in the Vehicle Integration Module