Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) personnel are espousing the benefits of the department’s DARPA’s Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program.
Authorities said RACER seeks to ensure algorithms are not the limiting part of the system and autonomous combat vehicles can meet or exceed soldier driving abilities.
The initiative also involves the creation of simulation environments supporting the advancement of self-driving capabilities for future Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs).
“In order to achieve RACER goals of increased speed and resilience, we need to embrace learning approaches that automatically tune system parameters in real time,” Stuart Young, program manager leading the RACER project, said. “Successful software will extract features from sensor data and use that information to make on-the-spot driving decisions.”
DARPA is slated to provide advanced UGV platforms research teams will use to develop autonomous software capabilities through repeated cycles of simulations and tests on unstructured off-road landscapes.
Over a span of four years, RACER would develop new algorithm technologies maximizing utilization of the sensor and mechanical limits of UGVs while consistently testing the algorithms in the field at DARPA-hosted experiments nationwide on a variety of terrain.
A Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) will include full program details and will be posted to beta.SAM.gov.