DSAT (Dismounted Soldier Autonomy Tools) – From

DSAT (Dismounted Soldier Autonomy Tools) –
From Conception to Deployment
Chris Mentzer
Southwest Research Institute
22 August 2014
Outline
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Program Highlights
Precursor Work
Architecture
Platforms
Sensing and Perception
Capabilities
Controller
DSAT Team
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Program Highlights
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In Brief
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2 Years
6 Vehicles of 3 different types
4 Behaviors
ATEC Safety Release
OCONUS Assessment
5 completed demos with 3 more
scheduled this CY
14 August 2014
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Deployment
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2 MRZRs and 2 FSRs sent to
Afghanistan in January 2014
FSRs demonstrated teleop, direct
follow and waypoint following, trained
soldiers on teleop and waypoint
following
Vehicle pushed forward to FOB and
soldiers were trained with vehicle
outside the wire
Received positive feedback and
performed well enough to be
scheduled for and ISR mission;
however, mission was cancelled due to
inclement weather
Gathered a lot of feedback on potential
uses as well as features/capabilities
that would be more useful
Valuable experience gained in what it
takes to deploy a system
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Next Steps
• DSAT Wrap Up
– Clean up and documentation
– Baselining performance for future programs
• CD 5 – Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUT)
– Maturation of Robotic Technology Kernel (RTK) first developed
under DSAT
– Basic and Advanced Soldier Robotic Teaming Capability Kits (SRTCK)
– Basic & Advanced Vehicle Robotic Teaming Capability Kits (VRTCK)
• Multi-UGV Extended Range (MUER)
– Marsupial robotic platform operating over long distances with
remote SATCOM base station
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Precursor Work
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MARTI (Mobile Autonomous Robotics
Technology Initiative)
• 5-year, $5M SwRI
IR&D starting in 2006
to develop UGV
enabling technologies
• Demonstrations at
2008 ITS World
Congress and 2009,
2010, and 2012
Robotics Rodeos
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SUMET (Small Unit Mobility
Enhancement Technologies)
• Funded by ONR Code 30
starting in 2011
• Focus Areas
– Low-cost EO
(camera)-only
perception
– Localization for GPSdenied operation
– World model
scalability
– Near- and far-field
path planning.
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TARDEC Programs
• Fast-IGS
– 360˚ Spatial
Awareness
• UWB Radio enabled
nodes
– Dismounted Following
– Mounted and
Dismounted
Operations
• SOURCE
– GVR lessons learned
leveraged
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Controller Programs
• VTT (Vetronics Technology Testbed)
– Laid foundation for the current SMI
– DCS Corp developed the Adaptable Graphical Interface Library
(AGIL) and the Weapon System Mapping Services (WSMS)
• SOURCE
– Precursor version of DSAT controller
– Operator able to create and execute mission plans, teleop and
access sensors
– Provided status and alerts as well as driving aids
• IMOPAT
– 360˚ SA crewstation
– Development and maturation of a Service oriented Architecture
(SoA) for Soldier Machine Interfaces (SMI)
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Architecture
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Modular and Scalable
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Autonomy and perception components written in ROS (Robot Operating
System)
– Open source framework with built in tools and algorithms
– Written in C++ and Python
– Code can be developed as separate nodes with defined interfaces
Software nodes broken into functional groups such that new nodes can be
substituted in or added to increase performance or add functionality, i.e.:
– Path planner algorithm node can be swapped without changing the rest
of the surrounding nodes
– Sensor inputs with different modalities can be added as technologies
emerge or mature
Safety critical components run on embedded systems with real time OSs
IOP compliant controller interface
Common By-Wire interface pairing five different vendor kits to the same Akit
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High Level Architecture
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Platforms
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HMMWV
• Qty: 1
• First system
• Built for development and testing while other systems were in
progress
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MRZR
• Qty: 3
• ATEC Tested and Deployed System
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Jeep Commando
• Qty: 2
• Leveraged SUSI vehicle platform and By-Wire kit
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RGator
• Qty: 1
• Added DSAT A-Kit, interfaced with existing By-Wire kit
and control message translator
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CERV
• Qty: 1
• In progress for MUER program
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Sensing and Perception
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Advanced Perception System (APS)
• Leveraged work from ONR SUMET
program
• EO (camera) based
• Material classification based on spectral
response and texture within the image
• State of the art pedestrian detection
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LADAR
• Pedestrian detection
• Ground plane
detection
• Clutter/grass
detection
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Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Radio
• Ranging based on
time-of-flight and
trilateration from
multiple radios
• Used to track
pedestrians and
vehicles for following
and safety
• Extensive filtering and
pertinent sensor
selection
Fixed UWB pair selection mapping
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Localization
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Leveraged ONR SUMET investment
Self-contained solution
Composed of low-cost, COTS components
Very low drift in bad GPS/GPS denied environments
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Capabilities
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Capabilities
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Remote Control and Teleop
– Driven via hard or soft joysticks on controller by operator either directly observing
vehicle or using driving cameras displayed on the controller
Waypoint Following
– Autonomous navigation with OD/OA of routes defined by:
• Driving the route manually and recording
• Driving the route via teleop and recording
• Drawing a route on overhead imagery
Follow
– Direct Follow
• Vehicle driving shortest distance to current location of selected pedestrian to
be followed at a set distance
– Exact Follow
• Vehicle following same route as selected pedestrian at a set distance
Push
– Maintaining a set distance in front of a selected pedestrian
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Capability Video
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Controller
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Hardware
• 2 form factors
– 7” ruggedized tablet
with physical joysticks
– 4.3” ruggedized
smartphone-style
handheld
• Common interface on
both form factors
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Features
• Capability to switch between modes on system
– Teleop
• Provides driving camera view and interface
– Waypoint
• Facilitates recording, inputting, loading and modification of waypoints
• Provides live position updates and sensor data
– Follow/Push
• Shows trackable objects and allows selection of leader
• Displays vehicle component health and provides warning
and error information
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DSAT Team
• DCS Corp
– Tommy Griffith, Bill Pritchett, Bill Protzman, Steve Ratka, Dave
Rudnic, Matt Sierro, Brian Wood
• SwRI
– Marc Alban, Joe Auchter, Steve Dellenback, Jason Gassaway,
James Hancock, Elliot Johnson, Kris Kozak, Chris Mentzer, Sam
Slocum, Jerry Towler, Ed Venator, Stephan Lemmer, Eric Thorn,
Abel Acevedo, Tim Specht, John Montes
• TARDEC
– Bob Kania, Phil Frederick, Tom Udvare, Graham Fiorani, Tim
Wahmhoff, Dave Conger, Kristen Pirozzo, Dave Pirozzo, Dmitri
Nguyen, Jason Osborne, Jon Petrosky, Keith Briggs, Eduardo
Cerame
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