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Safran News
IMUGS from SAFRAN ELECTRONICS & DEFENSE TAKES UP THE CHALLENGE TO MAKE A GROUND VEHICLE SMARTER
Since 2020, Safran Electronics & Defense has deployed its skills in optronics, navigation, and electronics as part of the integrated Modular Unmanned Ground System European defense project.
Integrated Modular Unmanned Ground System (iMUGS) is a European defense project, that aims to design and implement autonomy solutions for the THeMIS multi-role unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) built by Milrem Robotics.
Background
Back in 2014, Safran Electronics & Defense identified the issue of new, more autonomous ground and air mobility as a matter of interest. Safran Electronics & Defense, therefore, implemented a strategy, expanded collaborative efforts and developed projects to acquire the necessary skills, experience, credibility and visibility to anticipate future needs, especially in terms of defense. It was awarded two emblematic contracts which supported this strategy: the FURIOUS preliminary design project financed by the DGA and its European equivalent, iMUGS.
A more autonomous unmanned ground vehicle to meet the needs of military operations
For two and a half years, the iMUGS program has focused on making the THeMIS tracked UGV more autonomous. The program is funded by the European Commission, so it carries major ambitions of interest to all European armed forces: develop technologies to reduce troop exposure to danger, relieve them of a number of tasks and provide an opportunity to carry and utilize extra gear and firepower with the deployment of multiple autonomous platforms.
For the 13 European industrial members of the consortium, the unmanned vehicle platform served as an integration and test platform for autonomy technology components and functional chains. Such components and chains have been officially presented as and when their design phases have been completed. A fifth demonstration was hosted by Safran Electronics & Defense and Nexter on October 26, 2022, under the watchful eye of representatives from several European countries, military organizations and potential future customers.
The added value of Safran Electronics & Defense: detection and recognition, navigation, guidance, electronics, and software integrated onboard
Alongside their colleagues from Nexter, Diehl Defence and Milrem Robotics, the Safran Electronics & Defense crew worked on the backbone system architecture as well as the development and integration of hardware and software components in the form of an autonomy kit for the THeMIS platform.
Whether in terms of optronics, inertial navigation, or system architecture, seniors and new hires blended their expertise and capacity for innovation to develop:
- The system architecture for autonomy, which the backbone of the autonomous unmanned vehicle. The architecture is modular and open. It enables the integration of hardware or software components developed by Nexter and Diehl Defence; this electronic backbone allows the integration and orchestration of a wide range of algorithms.
- The algorithms used to acquire and analyze position data supplied by various detectors and serve to control vehicle movement in a “GNSS-denied” environment.
- The algorithms used to acquire and analyze detection and recognition data to understand the environment and build a terrain map.
- Lastly, a planning and execution system, integrating innovative AI solutions used to define the vehicle’s route or trajectory.
Future products in European Defense in construction
Last stage of iMUGS: the sixth and final demonstration. It will take place in Germany on December 15. Followed by the potential launch of an iMUGS 2 program, again headed up by Milrem to bring greater maturity to the project.
But for Safran Electronics & Defense, autonomous vehicle systems do not stop at the borders of the iMUGS program. The technologies developed should be usable by other types of unmanned ground vehicles.
At each stage of the project, Safran Electronics & Defense staff made a point of designing technologies not tied to the Milrem Robotics platform, with the intention of being able to deploy them in other environments and make sustainable use the know-how acquired.
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