Australian Army backs Deakin autonomous vehicle research

The contract is part of the Federal Government’s recent $12.2m investment in Australian industry contracts to increase the Army’s experimentation, prototyping and exploration of autonomous vehicle and emerging technologies. It also underscores the Department of Defence’s commitment to IISRI’s Leader-Follower autonomous vehicle technology program, with a previous $2.9m contract awarded in late 2018 providing for the development phase of the project. The new contract provides for the second phase of the project, which involves expansion and prototyping and brings the Australian Army’s total investment in the program to $6.3m.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Alfred Deakin Professor Julie Owens said Deakin is proud to continue providing world-class technology for the Australian Defence Force in a partnership that first began in 2006.

“Deakin continues to work very closely with the Australian Defence Force to provide key technologies and capabilities to strengthen Australia’s sovereign capabilities,” Professor Owens said. “Deakin is uniquely geared towards providing solutions to real-world problems and we are proud of our track record and successful past delivery of projects for our clients, including the Australian Army. It is a privilege to play a role in protecting Australia and bringing greater prosperity to Australian society.”

IISRI Director Professor Saeid Nahavandi explained that the particular technology under development for the Australian Army relates primarily to large vehicles in the first instance, with a specific focus on convoys.

“The technology is vehicle agnostic, furnished with a range of advanced sensors – powered by IISRI’s home-grown software algorithms –to provide very safe and trustworthy manoeuvres,” Professor Nahavandi said. “Driving on a highway or cruising around an urban area is one thing, but our technology allows these vehicles to travel off-road in far more complex, unstructured, rough terrain – over riverbeds and through creeks – even when there’s no markings on the ground.”

Professor Nahavandi said the technology stems from his key research findings in haptics and robotics over the past 30 years: “One of the key advantages of this system is its adaptability – it can be retrofitted to old and new vehicles, providing a total vehicle agnostic solution for a range of transport including tanks, transporters, bulldozers and trucks.

“Aspects of the bolt-on pack will also have the capability to be used in air and sea domains and the technology can easily be adopted in other non-defence sectors such as transportation and logistics, mining and agriculture, all of which are of immense value to the Australian economy.”