DARPA has tested a tank-like robotic vehicle called RACER Heavy Platform

DARPA, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, has announced successful tests of its new autonomous vehicles under the RACER programme. The "green eyes" of the 12-tonne RACER Heavy Platform (RHP) tank are attracting particular attention.

Here's What We Know

These huge vehicles, weighing 12 tonnes and measuring 6.1 metres in length, have been programmed using the Textron M5 base system, which is already used in many of the US Army's unmanned vehicles. They are designed to complement RACER Fleet Vehicles (RFVs), which are relatively small, weighing just 2 tonnes and measuring 3.3 metres long.

Testing of the vehicles, with the help of teams from the University of Washington and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, took place at military training sites in Texas in late 2023. Video of the tests in Texas is now available on YouTube, showing fully autonomous driving of these giant vehicles in off-road conditions.

The "green eyes" in this demonstration are particularly eye-catching. Tim Haynes, director of public affairs at DARPA said that these are simply indicators showing the status of the vehicle. The green colour means it is on and in autonomous mode.

DARPA also published a new YouTube video showing tests of smaller RFVs that stood out for their adaptability in autonomous mode. The teams conducting the tests had no previous experience in this field, which made the conditions closer to real-world conditions. The goal was to observe the performance of these vehicles in an unfamiliar environment.

The company has been developing autonomous vehicles for decades, starting with the Strategic Computing Initiative in 1983. It's amazing how far the U.S. military has come in this area. Whereas in 1985 an autonomous ground vehicle had difficulty with a little snow on the road, in the 2020s such obstacles are no longer a problem.

Source: DARPA