Military Unmanned Ground Vehicle Maneuver: A Review and Formulation 2023-01-0108

A state-of-the-art review of the technical meaning and application of the term ‘maneuver’, used by the U.S. Army and ground vehicle engineering communities, was performed with regard to various military activities, including modeling and simulation (M&S), to focus on the value and applicability of the term to military vehicle dynamics. As shown, U.S. military doctrine has built through history and experience a unique concept of maneuver-in-general and its application in U.S. Army unified land operations. Yet, the term ‘maneuver’ needs further technical categorization and characterization for the purpose of dynamics of military unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and vehicle design for maneuver. While the NHTSA and SAE standards and definitions provide solid foundations for M&S of cars and trucks to enhance the safety of those vehicles (manned and autonomous), occupants, and pedestrians on roads, the standards cannot address all needs of military vehicles in maneuver. Military UGVs are designed to operate in hyper-dynamic battlefield and tactical conditions on severe terrains where manned systems cannot operate. These operational conditions require a different approach to modeling, simulation, and real-time UGV-self-assessment of its dynamic behavior to be technically capable to fulfill autonomous missions and tasks for the sake of the safety of warfighters and the UGV itself. In the paper, a technical definition for a military vehicle maneuver is presented with the purpose of encompassing vehicle agile movements with extended safety due to controllable instability and also unsafe movements on a need basis. Sub-element definitions of a vehicle maneuver and new ideation of agile movement is proposed to narrow the scope to vehicle military tasks in austere environments. Along with formulation, a graphical interpretation is provided to illustrate advantages of the proposed approach for planning UGV motion using geometric and kinematics characteristics. The contextual application is shown in an operation study to illustrate where the terms can improve M&S.