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Autonomous vehicles serve in frontline combat formations fighting alongside manned vehicles, resupply missions, urban reconnaissance etc.
Autonomous vehicles combine decision-making with real-time control. These two aspects become more critical in the modern battlefield. Mission-decision and Real-Time control are being achieved by sensor technology – gathering situational data through radar, LIDAR and electro-optics – as well as complex software algorithms for processing the huge amounts of data collected and determining what action needs to be taken.

The main task of the sensing suite in autonomous vehicles is to provide the most reliable and dense information on the vehicular surroundings. The challenge is controlling and managing the system integration in real-time battlefield from both communication and power aspects. The networking solutions should feature Layer 2 and Layer 3 capabilities in addition to management capabilities. Power distribution units are needed to manage the power and power supplies with high power output and the ability to work simultaneously with other power converters.

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The armed forces see Software Defined Radios (SDR) as an optimal solution to combat the ever-changing communications technologies surrounding traditional manpack radios that are used in today’s ground vehicles. SDRs enables the radio chassis to run multiple wavelengths or can accept an upgrade capability by simply changing out payload cards. By using a single chassis as the base platform, there have been significant size, weight, and power (SWaP) improvements for the vehicle and platform integrations. This enables the combination of shared resources and, by reducing the amount of man-pack radios, decreases the tax on the vehicle’s electrical system.... read more

Every electrical system created for the battlefield poses its own unique set of challenges that require difficult design decisions. We know that design engineers all too well understand about the trade-offs between requirements of the system and those of its components. The same is true for industry standards that apply at the system level versus those that apply to its components. When faced with what to do when overlapping standards don't agree, sometimes the answer is -- do more.... read more