DARPA has announced that its Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program has passed another important milestone with testing its bigger, meaner drone variant.
A 12-ton beast of a machine, the larger RACER autonomous ground vehicle also has a pair of green lights reminiscent of glowing eyes.
The green-eyed monster drone is 20 feet (6.1 meters) long, skid-steer tracked, and based on Textron’s highly successful M5 RIPSAW chassis. The US Army already widely uses these for various logistical and tactical roles.
DARPA explains that the 12-ton RACER is being designed to complement and support other members of the RACER Fleet Vehicles (RFVs). However, its compatriots are much smaller, weighing 2 tons and measuring a paltry 11 feet (3.35 meters) long.
“Having two radically different types of vehicles helps us advance towards RACER’s goal of platform agnostic autonomy in complex, mission-relevant off-road environments significantly more unpredictable than on-road conditions,” explained Stuart Young, RACER program manager.
RACER: the green-eyed monster drone
“For Phase 2, adding the combat-scale RHP robot supports porting and performance demonstration of RACER autonomy stacks at multiple scales concurrently while moving between highly varied terrains,” he added.
The larger RACER has been jointly developed by the University of Washington and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Its latest test, which appeared to have succeeded, occurred at a Texas-based range in late 2023.
The test involved two teams that had no prior experience in the testing area. This was by design to ensure the test was as realistic as possible for a real deployment.
The goal was to see how these vehicles could perform in a foreign environment.
“Using fully unoccupied RFVs, RACER demonstrated autonomous movement within a 15-square-mile terrain area including highly diverse ground vegetation cover, trees, bushes, rocks, slopes, obstructed ditches, and creek crossings typical of the varied, complex Texas terrain familiar to armored maneuvers,” DARPA explained in its official press release.
The tests also included nighttime operation, which DARPA explained revealed the new drone is equally as functional as in daylight hours.
The new drone operated well
In addition to an official press release on the test, DARPA has also released interesting footage of the 12-ton monster drone on the prowl.
Regarding the “green eyes,” these are simply status indicators showing that the vehicle is in autonomous mode, DARPA explained to Gizmodo.
The RIPSAW M5, based on the new drone, is designed for silent operation and is currently used as part of the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle-Medium (RCV-M) program. They offer interesting opportunities for the Army, including protecting convoys and conducting rescue missions.
They can also be used for setting up perimeter defense, surveillance, patrolling the border, and crowd control. The RIPSAW can also be modified for the disposal of explosive devices.
DARPA has been trying to develop autonomous vehicles since the early 1980s, notably through something called the Strategic Computing Initiative. However, technology has come a long way since then, especially if the latest RACER tests are anything to go by.
