Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) — GECKO und MACE 2 — UGVs

The Land robot­ics sys­tem RoboScout con­sists of a move­able com­mand post and two unmanned ground vehi­cles (UGV) called Gecko.
The Gecko can be con­trolled over var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels. There is the pos­si­bil­i­ty to con­trol the Gecko through a satel­lite or ter­res­tri­al radio from a plane as a relay sta­tion to increase the com­mu­ni­ca­tion range. 

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The com­mand­ing post can also steer the Gecko with its sta­tion­ary, ter­res­tri­al anten­na for close range oper­a­tions. Even through a com­put­er that is car­ried along by a sol­dier, the vehi­cle can be steered via WLAN on short distance.

Field of appli­ca­tion
The sys­tem RoboScout can oper­ate and sup­port the fol­low­ing field of apllications: 

• Patrol
• Escort
• Object protection
• Advanced observer
• Recon­nais­sance patrol
• Decoy for ene­my forces
• Recon­nais­sance and mon­i­tor­ing missions
• Fire support
• Konvoi
• Logis­ti­cal sup­port, trans­port missions
• Bor­der patrol

You can find fur­ther infor­ma­tion about the Gecko here:
Waffensysteme->Landsysteme->Deutsch­land — Gecko — Unbe­man­ntes Landfahrzeug/Unmanned Ground Vehi­cle (UGV)

MACE 2 — Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehi­cle (UGV)

MIRA’s MACE 2 UGV is a mul­ti-appli­ca­tion plat­form and is capa­ble to ful­fill var­i­ous fields of appli­ca­tion like: 

• Car­go transport
• Convoy
• IED detection
• Med­ical assistance
• Weapons support
• Patrol duty
• Reconnaissance
• Surveillance

MACE 2 Click to enlarge

The MACE 2 with its top speed of 80 mph can eas­i­ly keep pace with manned vehi­cles and its pay­load of a ton load capac­i­ty is ide­al for con­voy sup­port. Anoth­er field of appli­ca­tion is the oper­a­tion in sur­veil­lance and recon­nais­sance mis­sions. The vehi­cle can be equipped depend­ing on the mis­sion with var­i­ous sen­sors like laser, ultra-son­ic etc., with a weapon sta­tion and an IED detec­tion system. 

The propul­sion is a four-wheel-dri­ve with a diesel engine that pro­vides endurance for 8 hours. The MACE 2 can be dri­ven remote­ly by per­son via a pow­er­ful non line-of-sight com­mu­ni­ca­tions with a 5 km range by using tele-op con­trol. The com­man­der main­tains sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness through a tilt and pan camera. 

One per­son is able to con­trol mul­ti­ple plat­forms because of the full autonomous control/mode where the MACE 2 itself can sense its sur­round­ings because of the advan­tages of binoc­u­lar vision and radar. In case of obsta­cles the onboard obsta­cle avoid­ance and route re-plan­ning algo­rithms allow the vehi­cle to maneu­ver safe­ly through the obstacles. 

The MACE 2 has two autonomous con­trol modes: A way­point mode where way­points have been flagged as points of inter­est through satel­lite or loi­ter­ing drone intel­li­gence and a zone con­trol mode which is ide­al for patrol duty or for scanning/clearing areas of IEDs. 

The field of IED detec­tion has become a pri­or­i­ty in the recent oper­a­tional the­aters and in part­ner­ship with Roke Manor Research Ltd. (a Siemens Com­pa­ny) MIRA Ltd. has devel­oped an IED detec­tion sys­tem that com­bines the long range capa­bil­i­ty of ground pen­e­trat­ing radar (GPR) with a short range and high accu­ra­cy detec­tion solution.

If an IED or oth­er threats has been detect­ed the MACE 2 trans­fers the infor­ma­tion through a high speed encrypt­ed data link to the base.

For video footage about the MACE 2 please click the fol­low­ing link:
Defence News->Sonderausgabe->M‑ELROB-> ELROB 2010 — Filmgallerie

For pic­tures about the MACE 2 please click the fol­low­ing link:
Defence News->Sonderausgabe->M‑ELROB-> ELROB 2010 — Bilder­gal­lerie

Spec­i­fi­ca­tions

Basic data Height (Min/Max): 128 cm /160 cm Width: 178 cm Length: 277 cm Weight: 1300 kg Turn­ing diameter: 250 cm Ground clear­ance: 26 cm
Mobil­i­ty Climb­ing performance: up to 90 °, 45 cm step  Rad- oder Raupenantrieb: wheel (4 x 4) Propul­sion: Diesel Endurance: 8 h Max.speed: 80 km/h Pay­load: 1000 kg Steer­ing: Worm and roller 2 wheel sterr (fit­ted for 4 wheel steer) Con­trol: Remote tele oper­a­tion, non-line-of-sight Stairs: Yes
Com­mu­nika­tion equipment
Type:	Dig­i­tal vide­olink / Dig­i­tal point to point control
Fre­quen­cy:	L‑Band and UHF
Num­ber of Channels:	8

Sen­sor equipment
Laser:	3 x Sick Lidar
Vision:	OPS Opti­cal Posi­tion System
GPS:	Omnistar
Oth­er sensors:	Ultra son­ic, inertial
	Source: MIRA Ltd.