Unmanned Systems Technology 007 | UMEX 2016 report | Navya ARMA | Launch & recovery systems | AIE 225CS | AUVs | Electric motors | Lethal autonomous weapons

36 Dossier | Navya ARMA Certification A highly flexible architecture is required to meet the very different requirements of different certification authorities. These range from class approval in some countries such as France, where authorisation took six months for the ITS trials in Bordeaux, to certification of the brake systems of each individual vehicle in Switzerland for the current trials in Lausanne. Conclusion The development of the ARMA platform brings together several aspects of engineering. The sensors are the heart of the platform, with three separate sources of data combined to provide a high level of confidence for the control of the vehicle. With a mass-transit application, the connection to a monitoring centre is key. This centre provides input from an operator, not through remote operation but by using pre-programmed, certified scenarios that can be chosen depending on the situation. The operator can also interact with pedestrians and traffic around the vehicle so that the passengers on board the vehicle don’t have to. Having LCD screens in the ARMA’s windscreen is currently unique to the Navya design. With a flexible physical structure to allow smaller and larger vehicles to be easily developed, Navya aims to have a range of them available on the public streets of Europe and the US when regulations allow. In the meantime, the company has become the first to provide autonomous ground vehicles for private industrial estates (see sdiebar above). This will further enhance the performance of the platform and refine the capabilities of the supervision centre software. April/May 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology Lidar: Velodyne, SICK Processing boards: Perfectron Powertrain: various Powerpack: EVE System ECU: EVE System V2V software: Marben V2V transceiver: Autotalks V2V controller: STMicroelectronics Supervision centre software: BestMile Key suppliers to the Navya ARMA Navya has seen the first commercial roll-out of a mass transit autonomous vehicle, with the ARMA replacing buses at EDF’s nuclear power plant at Civaux in western France. As of March 2016, six ARMA systems have been operating every six minutes between 6 am and midnight, carrying up to 1000 people a day on a preset 3 km circuit. This replaces several buses that each carried 40 people and ran every 15 minutes. The system will eventually move to 24-hour operation. Using the ARMA system reduces the annual CO 2 emissions by 40 tonnes, and can save up to e 3 m in operating costs, says CEO Christophe Sapet. Commercial roll-out The plan is to have a range of types of the ARMA on US and European public streets when regulations allow