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| Those long dampers can keep the vehilcle level even if one side is 1,8 m higher on onse side than the other. |
Darpa stands for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the GXV-T refers to Ground X-Vehicle Technology, and its all ground breaking as far as transport is concerned — with shape-shifting tyres, in-hub motors and virtual windows and self-driving abilities.
The agency recently gave its “military service transition partners” (read private companies tendering for military contracts) a chance to demo all the tech that went into the GXV-T.
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| The wheels shape shift from round for firm surfaces to tank tracks over rough terrain while on the move. |
Reconfigurable wheel-track
The most revolutionary kit on the GXV-T is the shape-shifting wheels.
A team from Carnegie Mellon University National Robotics Engineering Centre (CMU NREC) demonstrated how the round wheels shift to a triangular track and back again while the vehicle is on the move, for instant improvements to tactical mobility and manoeuvrability on diverse terrains.
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| British company QineticQ's hubmotor comes with its own cooling system and three gears. |
Electric in-hub motor
Hub motors are where electric drive-trains are all heading.
These motors come in sizes that range from tiny motors in skateboard wheels to Chinese company Protean Electric’s Pd18 motor, which weighs 36 km and fits into an 18-inch rim, but makes 1 250 Nm and 75 kW.
Two of these in the rear wheels add up to super car acceleration.
QinetiQ, the U.S. company that designed the 20-inch hub motors for the GXV-T, did not reveal any specifications, but did state their system has three gears and a thermal management built into a system, which suggest their hub motor will be at least four times stronger than Protean’s Pd18 hub motor.
Extreme suspension
Pratt & Miller build the GXV-T’s multi-mode extreme travel suspension (called Mets) and said the system kept the vehicle up right at high-speeds over rough terrain.
The Mets party trick is a high-travel suspension that extends over a metre upward and 76 cm downward to keep the vehicle level on slopes or slants that differ 1,8 m — a man’s height — from one side of the vehicle to the other.
The demonstration in showed off this suspension’s ability to hydraulically adjust the travel on each wheel to keep the vehicle level.
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| Who needs windows when you can have reality augmented? |
Virtual windows
In full combate mode the GXV-T has a windowless cockpit with an opaque canopy, but this does not pose a problem for the driver, as Honeywell International demonstrated with its enhanced 360-degree Awareness with Virtual Windows.
The 3-D near-to-eye goggles, optical head-tracker and wrap-around Active Window Display screens provide real-time, high-resolution views outside the vehicle.
On off-road courses, drivers have completed numerous tests using the system in roughly the same time as drivers in All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) with full visibility.
Virtual perspectives
As any tank driver will testify, a slit in the armour plating offers limited visibility when driving — especially when moving rapidly through unfamiliar territory.
Raytheon BBN Technologies showed its Augmenting Natural Experience (V-Pane) technology, which its said fuses data from multiple vehicle-mounted video and Lidar cameras to create a real-time 3-D model of the vehicle and its nearby surroundings.
In a final Phase 2 demonstration, drivers and commanders in a windowless recreational vehicle successfully switched among multiple virtual perspectives to accurately manoeuvre the vehicle and detect targets of interest during both low- and high-speed travel.
Self-driving
CMU NREC technology demonstrated their Off-Road Crew Augmentation (Orca), which aims to predict in real time the safest and fastest route and, when necessary, enable a vehicle to drive itself off-road.
In Phase 2 testing, drivers using the Orca aids and visual overlays travelled faster between waypoints and eliminated nearly all pauses to determine their routes.
The team found autonomy improved either vehicle speed or risk posture, and sometimes both.
