Dual-Use Voice Command Autonomy

Voice commands offer significant value for autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) in military operations by enabling rapid, hands-free control and communication in dynamic environments. They enhance operational efficiency by allowing soldiers to issue commands without diverting attention from their surroundings, improving situational awareness and response time. Voice interfaces reduce the cognitive load associated with traditional control methods, allowing for more intuitive and natural interaction with AGVs, even in high-stress combat scenarios. Additionally, advanced speech recognition and AI integration enable secure, adaptive, and context-aware command execution, ensuring that autonomous systems operate effectively in complex, multi-domain battlefields.Forterra is building the next generation of ground technologies for defense and has partnered with the Department of Defense (DoD) to advance operationally relevant robotics, self-driving and autonomous capabilities. Forterra’s commercially available self-driving product, AutoDrive, is a full-stack (hardware and software) Autonomy Kit (A-Kit) that is employed across every major DoD ground autonomy program and by commercial companies. This proposed Phase II effort will focus on developing a prototype capable of autonomously operating a vehicle using voice command. Forterra, strategically teamed with subcontractors Duality Robotics, Inc. (Duality) (UEI: L93CA6UJW8V6) and Raytheon BBN Technologies (BBN) (UEI: JAXJSTJJSP74), an RTX company, will develop a voice commanded autonomous system that leverages operational and best-in-class commercial technologies and exceeds all objectives and requirements of the SBIR effort.Intended to immediately support the XM30 platform, Forterra’s approach mirrors the XM30 program office’s “digital first” design approach. Leveraging Duality’s Falcon simulation platform, Forterra’s proposed effort will be able to design, test, and integrate faster and more iteratively than other approaches.The integration of voice-to-command technology through BBN’s industry leading language Cyrus technology paired with Forterra’s proven ground autonomy systems will lead to increased hands-free operation, safety enhancements, and accessibility of vehicles. This will enable end users to operate faster, more efficiently, and with greater situational awareness, introducing more use cases and the opportunity to expand into new commercial sectors, such as public safety, autonomous farming and construction equipment, and autonomous mining.