Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) personnel have completed the third test of off-road unmanned vehicles as part of its Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program.
The March 12-27 test runs in the Mojave Desert included the first with completely uninhabited RACER Fleet Vehicles (RFVs), with a safety operator overseeing in a supporting chase vehicle. The goal of the RACER program is to demonstrate autonomous movement of combat-scale vehicles in mission-relevant off-road environments more unpredictable than on-road conditions.
“At Experiment Three, we successfully demonstrated significant improvements in our off-road speeds while simultaneously reducing any interaction with the vehicle during test runs,” DARPA Tactical Technology Office RACER Program Manager Stuart Young said. “We were also honored to have representatives from the Army and Marine Corps at the experiment to facilitate transition of technologies developed in RACER to future service unmanned initiatives and concepts.”
The scope of Experiment Three testing involved teams completing over 55 driverless runs of between roughly four and 11 miles each, reaching speeds of about 25 miles per hour. Performers completed 246 miles over 24.6 total hours on course via a robotic fleet of 12 RFVs.
“During this latest experiment, we continued to push vehicle limits in perceiving the environments to greater distances, enabling further increase in speeds and better adaptation to newly encountered environmental conditions that will continue into RACER’s next phase,” Young said.