The OCU Specialists On battlefields across the globe, AMREL control solutions have proven their ruggedness and reliability in thousands of unmanned systems. Unlike other OCU solution suppliers, our control systems are integrated into the deployed solutions of many different robot manufacturers.
Unprecedented Interoperability and Integration for Robotic OCUs
AMREL’s 20+ year tradition of satisfying the specific needs of the military has led to the development of our unique patent-pending Application Modules. With these modules, application developers and robot manufacturers can integrate their proprietary technology into rugged, interoperable platforms.
Don’t Wait for a Common Controller
Our revolutionary Flexpedient Solutions create modular OCU systems that field multiple applications as well as command multiple heterogeneous unmanned platforms. While not a true common OCU, it enables you to generate solutions with common control capabilities here and now.
Like many of you, I receive numerous ads for market research studies. In order to excite
our interest, they often contain a few snippets of facts. I decided to combine all these
“snippets” with the goal of forming a coherent vision of the future of unmanned
markets.
You can’t get there from here
In addition to examining market research reports, I contacted a few thought leaders
within the profession. I also posted questions about unmanned markets in the social
networks of LinkedIn and Quora.
For such a hot topic, I received surprisingly few responses. Typical was Greg Moeller’s
response. Greg, an entrepreneur and Managing Director of GGK LLC, posted this
comment:
I once read a quote from a futurist that many distinctions that we currently take for granted will be not be valid in the future. Things that seem as different as day and night will be indistinguishable. Day and night, for example. The proliferation of night vision and other sensor technologies will cause future generations to have radically different views about the level of privacy traditionally offered by the cloak of night. Another distinction that is already blurred is the one between manned and unmanned vehicles.
As described in an earlier blog post, A future for manned unmanned vehicles?:
"Optionally Piloted Vehicles (OPV) are turning up in a variety of places. The US Army, for instance, plans to include some level of autonomy on trucks and other vehicles. It is unknown whether these technological switch hitters will disappear as society becomes more comfortable with unmanned systems.”
We live in a GPS world
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) system, a
network of 24 satellites operated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The Russians have
their own GNSS (GLONASS) while the European Galileo and the Chinese Beidou are in
development.
Free and available for civilian use, GPS has become nearly ubiquitous in modern technologies.
A very limited list of GPS- dependent systems would include air traffic control, power grids,
financial operations (i.e., ATMs), cellular networks, ships, automated combine harvesters, and
of course, almost every navigation solution under the sun.
In the next few years, it is expected that both Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)
and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) will be become more integrated into
domestic markets. How do UGVs and UAVs compare in this military-to-civilian
transition? While clearly there are some significant differences between the way
UAVs and UGVs will be deployed, there also some similarities.
At the recent Ground Robotics Capability Conference (GRCC), I surveyed a number of
vendors about what was on their mind. I read them a list of topics that are frequently covered
in OCU Pro newsletters as well as AMREL’s corporate blog.
By far, one topic elicited more interest than any other: interoperability. On one hand, I was
pleased. AMREL has been a leader for developing solutions that have the ability to “… to work
with or use the parts or equipment of another system” (Merriam-Webster definition). For
example, our Flexpedient® Solutions enable kit building of Operator Control Units with common
control capabilities.
Why are unmanned systems developers offering so many different kinds of platforms and
ideas, when there is comparatively little demand by the civilian market? Why are there more
offerings than customers?
These questions were raised in the Unmanned Systems group in LinkedIn. It provoked a number
of insightful comments about the current state of unmanned systems and its future. If you are a
member of LinkedIn, and can log in, you can read the discussion here.
