ECA Group participates in EDA's Hybrid Manned Unmanned Platooning (Hy-MUP)’ project

Published on eda.europa.eu, February 2017.

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ECA Group provided the Unmanned Platform (based on a 4x4 wheel drive civilian vehicle with a Drive by Wire capability, a Robotic kit and an Obstacle Avoidance function) & the Command & Control Vehicle (a Control Station installed in another manned vehicle of the convoy).

This 3-years long European project, started mid-2013, was carried out by a consortium consisting of four German & French companies, with work shares & meetings in both countries.

To introduce an “hybrid platooning” capability, the key challenges were to implement an autonomous “Leader Vehicle Following” function & “Obstacle Avoidance” function.

To get a robotized platform, the technical steps were also to define :

• The sequence of operations and the relations to establish between the operator at the control station (in the manned driven vehicle) and the vehicle tele-operated (UGV : unmanned ground vehicle)
• The needed data to exchange between the control station and the UGV, as well as internally between robotics functions

The use of an existing vehicle also implied reengineering tasks for integration concern, as space and power supply are needed.

With this project, ECA Group reinforced its expertise for integrating its Teleoperation System kit to convert any vehicle into tele-operated remote or semi-autonomous control – such as done for the French Zone Demining System (SDZ).

Demonstrating the benefits and importance of mixed use of manned/unmanned vehicles for the Land Armed Forces, it completes the ECA Group research programs on the "robotics systemsof the future".

See also ECA Group vision of feature robotics for Defence application

Discover ECA Group UGV Solutions