Space exploration, disaster relief, and military operations are just a few of the applications of autonomous ground vehicle research being conducted under the Center for Automotive Research's new five-year, $100 million agreement with the U.S. Army.
Founded in 1994, ARC is the primary research partner of the U.S. Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center in Warren. ARC is led by the university and collaborates with 13 other universities, 84 faculty members, 34 companies, and four government agencies to form a bridge between the military, industry, and academia. ARC is located within the Faculty of Engineering.
Every five years, ARC undergoes a review of its strategic plan, where it proposes ideas and receives funding from the government. His last contract in 2019 had a cap hit of $50 million. This year, that amount has doubled. According to ARC Director Bogdan Epleanu, Roger L. McCarthy University Professor of Mechanical Engineering, this increase stems from the urgency and challenges of developing autonomous systems.
“We said, 'Look, we have the resources, we have the interest, we have the need, and we have the expertise to do it,'” Epreanu said. “We just need a higher cap on the contract.”
ARC annually solicits research proposals from researchers at partner schools. In an interview with the Michigan Daily, ARC principal investigator Targa Elsal, UM associate professor of mechanical engineering, said GVSC engineers will review the ideas and then the ARC executive committee will decide which projects to move forward with. , and will decide how much to raise from the required $100 million budget.
“In this way, we ensure that we are always aligned with the basic research needs of GVCS,” said Ersal. “Every year we can adjust where we put our emphasis.”
The collaboration between ARC and GVCS extends to the research process. The ARC project has a four-party structure of students, faculty principal investigators, GVSC representatives, and industry members that allows ARC to pursue dual-use technologies for both military and commercial applications. .
Over the past five years, ARC has prioritized developing self-driving cars that do not rely on human drivers but on algorithms that enable decision-making. Elsal said technological developments in artificial intelligence have made self-driving cars an interesting problem.
“We want these vehicles to serve as teammates to our soldiers and protect them,” El Salle said. “If it's dangerous to send a manned vehicle somewhere, can we send an unmanned vehicle that can navigate on its own and protect our soldiers from harm? That's an advantage.”
Ground vehicle systems have a broader definition compared to vehicles that primarily transport people and goods. They can conduct reconnaissance, clear debris and deploy local communications hubs, Epreanu said.
“We're just getting started and it's a huge challenge,” Epleanu said. “This new agreement and continued engagement with our sponsors allows us to dig even deeper and achieve our goal of bringing new autonomous technologies into more general use.”
Self-driving car companies develop their technology by testing it on the roads. ARC uses modeling and simulation because off-road scenarios applicable to the U.S. military are difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to reproduce.
“Mathematical models capture the behavior of a system and can be used to create a digital representation of the system,” Ersal says. “If we can do that reliably using mathematical models in simulations, it could have a huge impact on accelerating the development of these technologies.”
Rackham student and ARC graduate research assistant James Baxter, who is working on off-road autonomous driving on difficult slopes, said the technology could have applications in building supply routes and collecting samples on Mars and the moon. Ta.
“We're actually talking to some people at Northrop Grumman and as we're doing research, we're figuring out how to more closely match what the industry needs. I think this is really interesting.” Baxter said.
Baxter works on both digital simulations and physical experiments. ARC has two customized off-road vehicles supplied by Polaris Government & Defense, based on the MRZR model and equipped with sensors.
“There's a place about an hour west of here called Bundy Hill,” Baxter said. “We take our self-driving ATVs around on days when no one else is around and do experiments.”
Epleanu said future research plans will include decisions by ARC's industry partners on how to implement research findings into military and commercial vehicle designs.
“One of the most difficult things is to see the direct relationship between an algorithm and its application,” says Epleanu. “But it does happen, and when it does, it's very rewarding.”
Daily staff reporter Emily Sun can be reached at: emisun@umich.edu.
