The United States Army is set to implement a trial run of an autonomous vehicle fleet on public roadways—a test that’s reportedly the first of its kind. The fleet of self-driving military trucks will drive down Michigan’s Interstate 69, crossing the Blue Water Bridge in the process. Interstate 69 runs for over 200 miles, and cuts through eight counties in Michigan.
The vehicles used in this trial run will be flatbed military trucks. Although the trucks are designed to function completely unmanned, each vehicle will have someone sitting behind the wheel (mainly due to state driving laws), in case any unprecedented scenarios arise where the trucks need to be controlled manually.
The driverless technology functioning in the trucks participating in the trial run will reportedly be used in other military automotive mechanisms like tanks and armored vehicles. The autonomous technology will use sensors to help navigate the vehicles through roadways, and each truck will utilize adaptive cruise control, along with lane keeping assistance to maintain the unilateral direction of the convoy.
The Army has been conducting trial runs on autonomous technology for the past year on a specially connected highway system and private roads in test facilities. This also included a mock-up of a real town to show how these vehicles would function in urban environments. The convoy set to drive through Interstate 69 is reportedly the first time the Army will test autonomous technology on public roadways, which will remain open to all traffic during the trial run periods. Six radio transmitters will be installed along Interstate 69, allowing for groups of five vehicles to broadcast notable data like speed, distance, and traffic issues.
According to Head of Army Research Paul Rogers, this particular stage of testing has gone accordingly. The first phase of research involved testing the communication equipment of each vehicle, which also went smoothly. Rogers stated one of the key aspects his team will look out for is different radar reflections as the convoy crosses the steel girder (Blue Water) bridge, regardless of whether or not the systems get “confused.”
Aside from freeing up personnel for other roles, one of the primary goals of this research is to minimize human casualties and being able to send autonomous vehicles into dangerous areas without putting lives of soldiers at risk. Aside from hostile attacks on convoys, a lot of soldier fatalities are also a result of vehicle-related accidents.
In addition to significantly reducing the number of troop casualties stationed overseas, the autonomous technology could potentially lead to new types of robotic combat vehicles.
