From 19 to 22 July, the “Austrian Alpine Robotic Trials” were organized for the first time by the Office of Armaments and Defence Technology and the Institute of Software Technology at Graz University of Technology. On July 22, Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner also paid a visit to the off-road test event for military automated driving.
“The conflicts of the future are becoming increasingly complex. It is therefore important that the Armed Forces also work closely with Austria’s scientific and industrial elite in the research field of robotics. The Austrian Alpine Robotic Trials are a particularly good example of how technology experts from the Austrian Armed Forces are working together with specialists from science and industry to research future technology,” says Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner. Military automated driving differs significantly from classic automated driving on roads. In order to meet all the necessary requirements, an appropriate environment is needed to test the research technologies. The Office of Armaments and Defense Technology, in cooperation with the Institute of Software Technology at Graz University of Technology, offered precisely this opportunity at the Seetaler Alpe military training area. The conditions there made it possible to put the various systems through their paces in a professional, application-specific and secure training environment. Five teams with a total of four automated, unarmed robot systems were able to test their performance limits. The participants in the “Austrian Alpine Robotic Trials” included teams from Graz University of Technology, the technology group AVL-List, the defence group Diehl/Mattro, Joanneum Research, the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria and the Austrian Institute of Technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vwg3PaVfBM On the one hand, the vehicles were operating in challenging off-road environments – highly accurate maps of the surroundings are not available – and on the other hand, not all of the sensors normally used in civilian environments can be used. In order to support developments in the field of vehicle automation, but also to demonstrate the current state of the art, the experience gained during the “Austrian Alpine Robotic Trials” can be used as a basis for the Austrian Armed Forces for further research and development steps in the field of robotics.
