ROB MERRYWEATHER
BAE Systems’ technology director explains how ATLAS could transform the battlefield
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Self-driving vehicles can react in 0.5 seconds
What are the biggest challenges for fully autonomous vehicles?
The land domain is definitely the most complex and challenging for autonomy. For aircraft there’s not much that’s out there that’s going to get in the way. For a ship on the surface of the sea, there’s more [to navigate]. But on land you’ve got different terrain, trees, bushes, vehicles, children, animals – and the vehicle has got to be able to choose and identify what all of those things are and act accordingly.
To drive at 43 miles an hour over unproven ground is a really significant challenge, and to be able to do that safely in all environments. We test by driving over different types of terrain and giving the autonomy extra levels of authority and seeing how it copes. There’s a lot of learning and feedback from trial and error.