Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

BIG TRUCK ROBOTICS
January 2, 2008

Photo by Oshkosh Truck


Photo by Oshkosh Truck

FIRST TO MARKET WINS ?

Oshkosh Truck Corporation is the first government contractor to apply the technology developed in the DARPA series of autonomous vehicle races to a product that they are selling to the US military.  The driverless option for the Palletized Load System (PLS) has been demonstrated for its military customers.  The PLS has onboard material handling and 16.5-ton payload capacity designed to transport shipping containers, portable 3,000 gallon tanks, or cargo strapped to a container like skid. This truck is being used by US armed forces in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Other DARPA race teams have plans market their designs.  Oshkosh is the first one to do it.  The others may be coming along soon.  Oshkosh's driverless option for their trucks was demonstrated at the U.S. Army Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Component Technology Demonstrations in Yuma, Arizona for DoD customers.   They have produced the driverless option as a kit that can be factory installed on new orders or retrofitted as a field change to the Oshkosh trucks the military already owns.  With this approach, when the conversion of the military fleet of vehicles starts, it could happen rapidly.

Oshkosh Truck Company is the owner of the DARPA race vehicle TerraMax and while their truck did not win any of the races, it performed quite well and is a serious contender.  Team Oshkosh Truck won a million dollar development grant from DARPA and learned a great deal about autonomous vehicles by participating in the DARPA series.   What they learned went into the driverless option they are offering for sale to the military. 

ABOUT OSHKOSH TRUCK COMPANY -- NYSE: OSK 46.21

Oshkosh Truck Corporation is a Fortune 500 global leader.  The company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol OSK.  Its four primary business groups: Access Equipment, Defense, Fire & Emergency and Commercial. In fiscal 2007, Oshkosh Truck reached $6.3 billion in sales and delivered an 11th consecutive year of improving financial results.

The company's major brands – Oshkosh®, Pierce®, JLG®, McNeilus®, Medtec®, Geesink®, Norba®, Jerr-Dan®, CON-E-CO®, London®, IMT® and Frontline® – are considered leaders in their markets. Oshkosh is a global enterprise that, since 1996, has driven a compound annual growth rate for revenues of approximately 23 percent. This financial performance is the result of the company's diversified business model and focused growth strategies:

Commercialize through acquisition. Oshkosh has a proven record of completing strategic acquisitions, and then driving organic growth and cost reductions. Since 1996, the company has completed 15 acquisitions. 

Lead in product innovation. Oshkosh seeks to introduce more new products and technologies than its competitors in each end market, giving the company a distinct competitive advantage. Oshkosh is at the forefront of robotic vehicle development, diesel-electric drive technology, and independent suspension systems. 

Embrace lean manufacturing. Oshkosh's manufacturing philosophy of mass customization delivers highly specialized vehicles, while its large-scale manufacturing operations provide significant economies of scale. In fiscal 2004, the company launched a lean initiative to enhance its overall cost structure and improve returns on invested capital. 

Founded in 1917, Oshkosh Truck Corporation has manufacturing operations in 11 U.S. states, and in Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The company currently employs more than 14,300 people worldwide.  
                                                 -- Oshkosh Truck Company publication



photo:  Oshkosh Truck Company

PENTAGON EXHIBIT

December 2005 DARPA displayed the five vehicles, that finished the 2005 Grand Challenge race, in the inner courtyard of the Pentagon.  It is hoped that like air vehicles which have come to be accepted as essential partners in the air, unmanned ground systems will find a useful place in the defense community.

WHY DEVELOP AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES?

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Public Law 106-398, Congress mandated in Section 220 that “It shall be a goal of the Armed Forces to achieve the fielding of unmanned, remotely controlled technology such that… by 2015, one-third of the operational ground combat vehicles are unmanned.” DARPA conducts the Urban Challenge program in support of this Congressional mandate. Every “dull, dirty, or dangerous” task that can be carried out using a machine instead of a human protects our warfighters and allows valuable human resources to be used more effectively. -- DARPA publication


ABOUT THE DARPA URBAN CHALLENGE

"The DARPA Urban Challenge is an autonomous vehicle research and development program with the goal of developing technology that will keep warfighters off the battlefield and out of harm’s way. The Urban Challenge features autonomous ground vehicles maneuvering in a mock city environment, executing simulated military supply missions while merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, negotiating busy intersections, and avoiding obstacles." -- DARPA publication


ABOUT DARPA

"DARPA like it used to be—an entrepreneurial hotbed with high-risk, high-payoff programs and program managers who were always getting the director in trouble." -- DARPA publication

"It is a program manager-centric organization. What we do is aggregate PMs that have like interests into
what we call offices. What we found is that when you put people together with like interests, they start to like
each other, and they might even start to trust each other. When that happens, you get a nonlinear
generation of ideas that you wouldn't get before. And that is what DARPA is all about—the generation and
execution of new ideas." -- DARPA publication
 
  photo: Oshkosh Truck Company 

GO ROBOTS !

Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves soldier's lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org
http://aimagic.org
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
http://www.controleng.com/index.asp?layout=blog&blog_id=1180000318

Posted by Paul Grayson on January 2, 2008 | Comments (0)