53 that could detect explosive threats ahead of convoys, which would be dealt with by explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) personnel and machinery in the convoy. The system, known as PANAMA, was based on converting Snatch Land Rovers into autonomous systems, removing their seats and steering wheels (to remove the temptation to drive them), and adding an autonomy kit, ground-penetrating radar, cameras and other sensors. Around 20 units were built, delivered and supported by the team, and served the British Army in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2015, with plans to make them a core capability after the conflict. “But it was decided instead that after the withdrawal, UK forces did not plan to return to that kind of IED-rich environment, so that system went on the backburner,” says Andrew Maloney, head of technology and chief engineer at IDV-Robotics. “We came out of that campaign with a great deal of field-proven UGV engineering know-how and were looking for ways to apply it. At that time, computer vision and other AI-based technologies were becoming available that we hadn’t had access to before, so that’s really when development of Viking started.” Per its predecessor, the Viking was developed as a highly desert-capable system, meaning its developers wanted it to be able to climb steep sand dunes with a large and heavy payload. This drove them to design it as a 6x6 vehicle, with low ground pressure, and equip it with a high-performance, high-voltage, hybrid powertrain, enabling it to take soft sand slopes with a 60% gradient (or ‘grade’ in American English), equivalent to an approximately 31° angle, and achieve speeds of up to 45 kph. “The high-voltage powertrain was chosen to maximise its efficiency, and reduce losses due to high current in the wiring, especially in high power manoeuvres; something like a low voltage 48 V system could be dissipating hundreds of watts in the wiring when delivering high torque,” Maloney notes. To aid efficiency, IDV-R equipped Viking with several thermal conditioning systems, particularly for cooling the battery in hot desert environments or heating it in cold places. The MIRA Technology Park in Nuneaton provided key testing facilities to iterate and validate thermal performance, including climatic chambers with dynamometers for cycling the powertrain in very cold or hot climates, including simulating environments with over 50 C ambient heat and intense solar loading on the UGV body panels. The advent of an autonomous last-mile resupply programme from the UK MoD soon drove the team to begin developing offroad autonomy technologies, including advanced terrain perception and ATLAS, its GNSSdenied navigation solution, as a means towards guidance and localisation via a combination of perception sensors, AI and embedded maps. “We decided to install our new autonomy technologies and ATLAS first on the Viking, and trial it with DSTL [Defence Science and Technology Laboratory] on Salisbury Plain during the Army Warfighting Experiment 2018, which saw it successfully resupply troops across the range of scenarios that DSTL designed for the programme,” Davis says. Since then, IDV-R has gone on to participate in numerous national and joint defence programmes on autonomous resupply, CASEVAC and other applications, with Vikings being controlled in groups alongside other uncrewed systems, and through those it has continued optimising them in the UK and in overseas trials – along with its navigation, computer and powertrain systems – to date. IDV Viking UGV | Digest Uncrewed Systems Technology | June/July 2024 IDV-R’s technology originated in the early 2000s, from converting Snatch Land Rovers into uncrewed vehicles for use in Afghanistan
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