Canadian Defense Team Puts Unmanned Ground, Air Vehicles to the Arctic Test

    
        
            
        
        
            
        
    

The UGVs that took part in the Canadian military exercise in the Arctic. Photo courtesy Defence Research and Development Canada.

By Brett Davis



A team from Defence Research and Development Canada, the scientific wing of the country’s armed forces, tested two unmanned aircraft and two unmanned ground vehicles in the unforgiving environment of Canada’s Arctic to see if they could operate there and serve useful functions.



“We believe this is the likely the furthest north a ground robot has been driven and an unmanned helicopter has flown,” said Dr. Simon Monckton, the lead autonomous systems scientist for Joint Arctic Experiment 2014.



Monckton said in a teleconference on 19 Sept. that the systems performed well and showed their utility in a series of exercises dealing with the aftermath of a mock crashed satellite.



The group took “two UAVs, two UGVs and a whole mess of other equipment” to Canadian Forces Station Alert in Nunavut. There, they carried out 21 activities over 12 days to test the systems, all of which were modified manned systems.



The UAVs ran into some trouble with the weather, as high winds narrowed their flying window. Once aloft, they could fly for up to an hour and a half and cover a lot of ground, Monckton said. Meanwhile, the UGVs, which had tractor treads instead of wheels, could operate for up to eight hours on the ground.



It made for a good pairing, he said, particularly when a UAV was able to detect possible radiological hazardous waste from the mock downed satellite and quickly alert the UGV.



“The UGVs weren’t fast and took a beating. But they could keep going in all weather conditions. UAVs would very quickly eat up terrain. So there was a nice complement between the two,” he said.



All of the unmanned systems were experimental and developed for Canada’s military, but “we were delighted with how well … they overcame the challenges the Arctic presented to them,” Monckton said.



Despite the challenges of tough weather and broken parts, “our initial experience and findings are that these can be deployed to the Arctic” and used to bolster manned missions, he said.



The team’s analysis has not been completed and given to the armed forces, but Monckton said the scientific team would like to carry out more demonstrations with unmanned systems in the Arctic.



There is interest for their use, particularly in monitoring and measuring sea ice, he said.



“We know there is an interest in being able to survey ice. Past experiments used undersea vehicles, and one of the interests we have is being able to do over and under-ice examinations,” he said. “… There’s probably some magic to be had by mixing unmanned aircraft, unmanned ground and unmanned sea vehicles.”