RoMan, short for Robotic Manipulator, is a tracked robot that is easily recognized by its robotic arms and hands -- necessary appendages to remove heavy objects and other road debris from military vehicles' paths.What's harder to detect is the amount of effort that went into programming the robot to manipulate complex environments. The exercise was one of several recent integration events involving a decade of research led by scientists and engineers at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory who teamed with counterparts from the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of Washington, University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University and General Dynamics Land Systems. As part of ARL's Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance, the work focused on state-of-the-art basic and applied research related to ground robotics technologies with an overarching goal of developing autonomy in support of manned-unmanned teaming. Research within the RCTA program serves as foundational research in support of future combat ground vehicles. The recent robot exercise was the culmination of research to develop a robot that reasons about unknown objects and their physical properties, and decides how to best interact with different objects to achieve a specific task.

Based on feedback from Soldiers at an Army training course, ARL researcher Dr. Chad Kessens began to develop software to analyze whether any given robot could get itself "back on its feet" from any overturned orientation. "One Soldier told me that he valued his robot so much, he got out of his vehicle to rescue the robot when he couldn't get it turned back over," Kessens said. "That is a story I never want to hear again." Researchers from Navy PMS-408 (Expeditionary Missions) and its technical arm, the Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division, agree. They teamed up with JHU/APL and the prime contractor, Northrop Grumman Remotec, to develop the Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System, or AEODRS, a new family of EOD robotic systems featuring a modular opens systems architecture.

Researchers are developing software that will help military robots be more independent. The new software aims to ensure that a robot can always get itself back up after a fall, no matter what its orientation. The ability for robots to get back on their own feet means soldiers wouldn't have to risk their own lives to come to the aid of autonomous systems. Army researchers are developing new software that aims to ensure that a robot can always get itself back up after a fall, no matter what its orientation. The latest effort from the US Army Research Lab and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab builds on feedback from soldiers at an Army training course.