The New Robotic Truck

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Unmanned systems 2014 – Oshkosh the truck company is going robotic with its TerraMax Unmanned Ground Vehicle.

The company has made a major step towards that goal. After years of experimenting exclusively with cargo vehicles, it’s installed TerraMax on the M-ATV armored truck and equipped it to clear mines.

With roadside bombs (known in the military as IEDs) certain to remain a major threat in future conflicts, and the M-ATV to remain in service long after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, that’s a much more compelling combination of platform and mission. What’s more, Oshkosh is moving to a more open architecture for the TerraMax software to make it easier to adapt to different platforms in the future.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

According to Braking Defense Oshkosh built the robotic M-ATV on its own dime. But the company was also recently awarded a contract from the Office of Naval Research to test TerraMax for the counter-IED mission. (Oshkosh wouldn’t specify the dollar value).

The difference is the ONR is asking Oshkosh to put the technology on the standard Marine Corps cargo truck, the MTVR: Oshkosh has already tested MTVRs with TerraMax, so the only new aspect to this contract would be the mission-specific equipment for mine-clearing, not the vehicle itself.