SA-TALON™

The Semi-Autonomous Talon (SA-Talon™) program seeks to implement a set of autonomous and semi-autonomous behaviors as a field capable retro-fit payload on the MTRS Talon™ platform for the National Center for Defense Robotics (NCDR).

Autonomy capabilities will include:

• Retro-traverse and Re-traverse
  Using GPS-based retro-traverse, an operator can command the Talon™ to navigate autonomously back to his location while maintaining hands on weapon, or while he is packing up other gear. This can increase operator safety, and reduce mission cycle time. Re-traverse capabilities similarly allow the Talon™ to navigate back to a previously visited location without operator intervention.
• Leader-follower capabilities
  The capability to follow a lead vehicle or soldier can be used to transport equipment in a convoy or negotiate difficult terrain safely. Our approach is to localize and track a lead solder or small vehicle, while maintaining a history of the actual trajectory. This allows the leader to act as the obstacle avoidance system.
• Obstacle detection and avoidance
  During autonomous operation, the Talon™ must be able to determine whether the planned path is traversable or if there is an obstacle in the way. We intend to heavily leverage our work on the SA-RONS and LAGR programs which use stereo vision sensors to detect obstacles. In these systems, we used dynamic planning algorithms to reroute the robot around obstacles that were discovered in the planned path.

These capabilities can robustly operate in real world conditions, as they are based on mature, well-tested algorithms and software.