Unmanned Systems Technology 002 | Scion SA-400 | Commercial UAV Show report | Vision sensors | Danielson Trident I Security and safety systems | MIRA MACE | Additive manufacturing | Marine UUVs

62 M ilitary vehicles face some of the most challenging conditions possible, and so provide an insight into the key problems in the development of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). MIRA, the UK’s central automotive research institute, has been working on autonomous vehicle technology for more than a decade, and in 2008 it won a Grand Challenge Award set by the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Best Use of Autonomy with its UGV technology demonstrator MACE (MIRA Autonomous Control Engineering), steered by a remote operator. At an early stage this was demonstrating the fusion of navigation sensors and algorithms for obstacle avoidance that allowed accurate operation even in an urban environment. At the heart of the MIRA facility is a dedicated UGV proving ground, a 4 km series of test tracks for system development. The tracks include test The UK’s MIRA automotive research institute is trialling unmanned ground vehicles for the military. Nick Flaherty reports on the lessons being learnt Spring 2015 | Unmanned Systems Technology Doing some groundwork One of the challenges for the system design of MACE 3 is that is has to operate in three different modes – self-driving autonomous mode, remotely driven, and with a driver in the vehicle