Army weapons officials recently showed off its latest effort at arming an unmanned vehicle to keep soldiers safer on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
The Ripsaw unmanned ground vehicle, though still in development, has been tested and is capable of driving up to 1 kilometer ahead of various types of formations, said Bob Testa, lead engineer for the Remote Weapons Branch of the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, or ARDEC.<\/p>\n
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Rather than reinvent something, Testa said his team selected a vehicle already produced by Howe and Howe Technologies, since it had remote driving capabilities. In 2009, \u201cPopular Science\u201d magazine named the Ripsaw the invention of the year.<\/p>\n
Testa and his team converted the vehicle for Army use, according to a recent Army press release.
\nThe Ripsaw is armed with a Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station, or CROWS, a system that\u2019s been used in combat as far back as 2004 in Iraq.<\/p>\n
CROWS allows a soldier inside a tank, Humvee, Stryker or any other vehicle to fire his weapon safely from inside the armor-protected vehicle. Cameras and range finders on CROWS see for him and the system can tilt and swivel the weapon as needed.<\/p>\n
While that capability probably resulted in a lot of saved lives, the soldier inside the vehicle could still be killed or injured from a large enemy mine or projectile. So Testa\u2019s team took the remotely-operated system one step further. They completely removed the soldier from the vehicle.<\/p>\n
So the next step for his team was to design a weapon to fire remotely. ARDEC developed the Advanced Remote Armament System, or ARAS, a gun that self-loads its own ammunition and even can swap out various types of ammunition, such as lethal and non-lethal, in just a few seconds, he said.<\/p>\n
During tests, the Ripsaw was followed by an M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. Trailing up to a kilometer behind, the M113 was driven by a soldier. Another soldier, in the vehicle, controls the Ripsaw and its weapon wirelessly, Testa said.<\/p>\n
While it is technically feasible to go one step further and make the whole system robotic, meaning fully autonomous, Testa said that would not happen.<\/p>\n
The Ripsaw and its ARAS are \u201ctele-operated,\u201d he said. That means a soldier remotely drives it and operates and fires the weapon.<\/p>\n
Army leaders have repeatedly said that \u201cwar is a human endeavor\u201d and robots will never replace soldiers, he said.<\/p>\n
Besides the ethical reason, Department of Defense Directive 3000.09 \u201cAutonomy in Weapon Systems,\u201d published in November 2012, prohibits robots from making life and death decisions without a human in control.<\/p>\n
While a lot of experimentation and testing has occurred, Testa said formal certification testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, would still be required to move forward. Also needed will be a \u201cfirm requirement\u201d from the Army to move ahead past the development phase, Testa said.<\/p>\n