Unmanned Vehicle Stability Control and Sensor Integration System

The U.S. Army is seeking teleoperation tools to control high-speed unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in urban or off-road environments. To address this need, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to complete the development of a new Unmanned Vehicle Stability Control and Sensor Integration (UVS-CASI) system for UGV teleoperation with real-time vision, audio, and haptic feedback and vehicle stability analysis over a wireless channel. The UVS-CASI is based on unique integration of a state-of-the-art proprioceptive sensor assembly (gyros, accelerometers, and magnetometers) to form an early rollover/tipover warning system with real-time dynamics analysis and reporting, using extended Kalman filtering, haptic feedback control, an omniview vision system with real-time unwrapping software, an acoustic processing system to deliver real-time sound to the operator, and a minimum-latency wireless communication system (<20 ms) sufficient to control a moving vehicle at 40 km/h. In Phase I POC successfully demonstrated UVS-CASI feasibility by remotely operating a Pioneer 3 robotic platform with enhanced vision, audio, stability monitoring and feedback vehicle control, haptic control, and wireless communication. In Phase II POC will advance this design to a fully working prototype with smooth, remote, UGV operation via multisensor and robotic platform integration. Vehicle performance will be demonstrated in an outdoor environment.