Vehicle Environmental Impact Monitoring And Tracking

Military vehicles operating in a training environment will frequently be used in off-road conditions. Deep ruts created in training exercises by heavy vehicles can contribute to soil erosion and damage native vegetation. We propose to design and develop a low cost vehicle monitoring system that will measure vehicle dynamics and position so that potential environmental damage can be assessed and located easily for repair when the exercises are completed. This system will also provide a vehicle tracking capability for use in training exercises. The system design will include vehicle navigation electronics integrated with a satellite-based data link for near real-time tracking capabilities. Measured vehicle data may be stored in the on-board flash memory or transmitted over the wireless data link. The system will be packaged in a weather-tight, self-contained housing. A field commander's mobile display and mapping unit, and a fixed-base monitoring capability will be provided. User interface software will be designed for data reduction using vehicle parameters such as position, velocity and acceleration, and for system control and configuration. Resultant data files may be interfaced with industry standard Geographic Information Systems (GIS) programs.