El US Armyha comenzado a probar el Autonomous Volcano, un sistema de sembrado masivo de minas totalmente aut\u00f3nomo. Esta plataforma utiliza un dispensador tradicional M139 Volcano montado sobre un cami\u00f3n de carga pesada que opera sin necesidad de conductor. Durante los ensayos realizados, el veh\u00edculo demostr\u00f3 su capacidad para desplegar dos campos minados de forma aut\u00f3noma. El sistema tradicional es capaz de cubrir unas 13 hect\u00e1reas con hasta 960 minas, lo que ahora se lograr\u00eda pero sin exponer a los operadores. Adem\u00e1s, la plataforma registra de forma autom\u00e1tica la ubicaci\u00f3n de las minas y carga la informaci\u00f3n en un mapa compartido del campo de batalla. El proyecto ha sido desarrollado en conjunto entre EE.UU. y RUGB, adem\u00e1s de la asistencia t\u00e9cnica de la empresa Forterra.<\/p>\n
When mounted to a vehicle, the U.S. Army\u2019s Volcano mine dispenser can blanket roughly 32 acres with up to 960 mines. Now, the service is testing a system that can do the same thing without a driver behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
During May\u00a0demonstrations<\/a>\u00a0at Camp Grayling, Michigan soldiers remotely fired the Autonomous Volcano for the first time before later having it lay two separate minefields without human assistance, Picatinny Arsenal announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n The test represents the Army\u2019s latest move to modernize legacy equipment, systems tactics and munitions with emerging technology. In the combat engineering world, the service is experimenting with using unmanned aerial systems to drop\u00a0grappling hooks<\/a>, and it is trying to send drones \u2014 instead of humans \u2014 into the\u00a0breach<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Army has also tested autonomous vehicles for\u00a0mortar resupply<\/a>\u00a0and autonomous\u00a0boats<\/a>\u00a0for information gathering.<\/p>\n The autonomous Volcano variant paired the service\u2019s decades-old M139 Volcano dispenser with a driverless Palletized Load System truck \u2014 an upgrade designed to keep combat engineers out of danger. The system also automatically logs locations and uploads it to the Army\u2019s shared battlefield map, or common operating picture.<\/p>\n Soldiers from 4th Engineering Battalion remotely fired inert mine canisters from the dispenser in the demonstration\u2019s first live-fire scenario. Then, the system autonomously and simultaneously emplaced two minefields.<\/p>\n \u201cAutonomous Volcano leverages low-cost modernization to turn a legacy platform into a high-yield autonomous asset \u2014 securing asymmetric overmatch and closing a critical area-denial gap,\u201d Col. Vinson Morris, who oversees the Army\u2019s project manager for close combat systems, said in a statement.<\/p>\n The project was developed jointly by the U.S. and United Kingdom, according to the release, with defense contractor Forterra integrating the existing Volcano mine dispenser onto the automatic vehicle.<\/p>\n The Army plans to test the system in a series of realistic battlefield scenarios later this month.<\/p>\n