SBIR-STTR Award

Row upon row of simple-looking metal capsules are lined up on the deck of a USMC landing craft. One by one, they roll up a ramp and over the side, tumbling into the waves. Sinking to the bottom, each SPAMR rights itself and gets its bearings as its two massive, wraparound wheels begin to propel it across the seabed under command from a central swarm controller. Rolling in formation with its peers to breach a path up the beach, the SPAMR uses its wide wheel diameter to power over obstacles, and it's one and a half tons of weight, borne on its metal finned wheels, to trigger and detonate pressure fuzed mines lying in the sand and muck on the seabed. The 2-wheeled SPAMR represents a novel approach to the surfzone crawling MCM robot that addresses drawbacks to the 4-wheeled steered and tracked models that are most common in this application. Two-wheeled balance robots were originally introduced to the market with the Segway personal transport device in 2001. They possess two characteristics that give them an edge over other architectures. First, mechanical simplicity: the two-wheeled balancing robot has only two moving parts: the drive wheels. This is the most simple possible mechanism for a fully mobile robot, and this simplicity is hugely beneficial in the marine environment, reducing the number of seals and potential leak areas. Second: increased stability with no requirement for suspension: two-wheeled balancing robots offer enhanced stability over rough terrain, without the requirement for suspension. The system is inherently more controllable despite being under-constrained because active controllers can maintain stability and the geometry of the robot inherently avoids over-constrained scenarios like bumps where a controller becomes underactuated. Numerous research papers have confirmed the ability of these robots to tackle terrain more effectively than three and four-wheeled robots. For the CRAB application, the two wheel robot also has the advantage that the system's entire weight is over the two sole primary wheels, maximizing the pressure the system can apply relative to its total weight. A breaching formation of SPAMRs will cost less to acquire and maintain than the M1157 Assault Breaching Vehicle, and will not put any lives at risk as it does the job. SPAMR Proposed Design Features: 1200lb weight on rollers will trigger pressure fuzed mines, like a mine roller. Wheels make up nearly the entire outer area of the vehicle, maximizing its ability to climb up and over obstacles and making it totally self-righting in all orientations. Non-ferrous construction allows for magnetometer sensing. Electro-hydraulic propulsion system uses inexpensive COTS parts. 2-wheeled concept minimizes moving parts and water seals. Compressed-air buoyancy bladder aids recovery at sea and helps get SPAMR out of sticky mud. Acoustic navigation and C2 for submerged operations. Mesh radio for terrestrial operations. Estimated unit cost $40K-$50K.

Benefit:
The SPAMR fills an important tactical role for clearing littoral zones during landing operations that is currently unfilled. It is designed as a disposable system, able to be held in storage until there is a tactical requirement for its use. The implementation itself is somewhat specific to the Navy mission use case, and we expect that the main commercial market for this system is with the US Navy, other US Defense agencies who have similar tactical requirements (like the Coast Guard), as well as foreign naval armed services where permitted through FMS. We also believe that the SPAMR system has potential military and civilian applications for land use. Beyond the SPAMR systems themself some of the subsystems are in themselves reusable and commercializable on their own. A variety of landing systems are used by US and international military forces to get infantry, vehicles and supplies onto beaching during landing operations both large and small. Regardless of the specific platform, whether inflatable, rigid hull, hovercraft, barges or even littoral submarines, landing operations are impeded by surf and beach mines, obstacles and debris. SPAMR is relevant for ANY type of landing operation and has a home in any military unit which requires beach landing capability. For military market commercialization, GreenSight intends to work closely with the US Navy program office to find appropriate transition customers. The SPAMR would likely be deployed with Military Sealift Command vessels (which is approx 50 units) or aboard the upcoming Maneuver Support Vessels. It could be deployed directly by these larger vessels, or loaded into smaller landing craft for delivery ahead of a landing operation, like the aging LCM-8 class vessels (scheduled to be replaced by the MSV(light) but still in active use). We expect that a dozen or more SPAMRs would be provided as part of a landing operation support package, deployed ahead of landing forces whether infantry, mechanized or otherwise. A given naval unit whose mission is to prepare an area for a beach landing would have SPAMR systems onboard, ready to deploy, with more of them available for resupply. We expect that the US military would want to have at least a few hundred SPAMRs on hand, with a contract in place to maintain/support existing units as well as build more in the event of a large scale conflict. GreenSight will work with the Navy program office to investigate Foreign Military Sales (FMS) potential for this product with foreign services after domestic production begins.

Keywords:
MCM, MCM, SWARM, surfzone, Breaching, mine, Acoustic, Robot, Littoral

Row upon row of simple-looking metal capsules are lined up on the deck of a USMC landing craft. One by one, they roll up a ramp and over the side, tumbling into the waves. Sinking to the bottom, each SPAMR rights itself and gets its bearings as its two massive, wraparound wheels propel it across the seabed under command from a central swarm controller. Rolling in formation with its peers to breach a path up the beach, the SPAMR uses its large wheel diameter to power over obstacles, and it's one and a half tons of weight, borne on its metal finned wheels, to trigger and detonate pressure fuzed mines lying in the seabed sand and muck. The 2-wheeled SPAMR represents a novel approach to past surfzone crawling MCM robots and addresses drawbacks to the 4-wheeled skid-steered and tracked models that are most common in this application. Two-wheeled balance robots were originally introduced to the market with the Segway personal transport device in 2001. They possess two characteristics that give them an edge over other architectures. First, mechanical simplicity: the two-wheeled balancing robot has only two moving parts: the drive wheels. This is the simplest mechanism for a fully mobile robot, and this simplicity has added benefits in the marine environment, reducing the number of seals and potential leak areas. Second: mechanical stability without a suspension system: two-wheeled robots offer enhanced stability over rough terrain, without the requirement for suspension. Numerous research papers have confirmed the ability of these robots to tackle terrain more effectively than three and four-wheeled robots. For the CRAB mission, the two-wheeled robot also has the additional advantage that the system's entire weight is distributed over two points of contact, maximizing the surface pressure the robot can apply relative to its total weight. In addition to the advantages conferred by the two-wheeled design, SPAMRs architecture allows it to contain a variable buoyancy system that will allow it to roll along the bottom, to propel itself up and over large or otherwise unpassable obstacles, and to paddle on the surface like a boat. A breaching formation of SPAMRs will cost less to acquire and maintain than the M1150 Assault Breaching Vehicle, able to tackle difficult surfzone terrain, and will not put any lives at risk as it clears the beach. We believe SPAMR to be a viable approach to fulfill the CRAB mission CONOPs, exceeding mobility, cost and logistical requirements. We also believe it to be superior at meeting these requirements relative to past robotic concepts, and our physical testing conducted in Phase 1 supports this conclusion.

Benefit:
SPAMR fills an important tactical role for clearing littoral zones during landing operations that is currently unfilled. It is designed as an attritable system, able to be held in storage until there is a tactical requirement for its use. Although SPAMR was designed to fill this specialized USMC tactical requirement, we envision a market for SPAMR with other US and allied defense agencies with similar mission requirements. We also envision potential commercial applications where the simplicity and mobility of SPAMR are attractive. A variety of landing systems are used by US and international military forces to get infantry, vehicles and supplies onto beaching during landing operations both large and small. Regardless of the specific platform, whether inflatable, rigid hull, hovercraft, barges or even littoral submarines, landing operations are impeded by mines, obstacles and debris. SPAMR is relevant for ANY type of landing operation and has a home in any military unit which requires beach landing capability. SPAMR also has military and civilian applications for land use. A number of SPAMR subsystems are also in themselves reusable and commercializable on their own. For initial military market commercialization, GreenSight intends to work closely with the USMC Systems Command and the Combat Engineer community to secure appropriate transition customers. We estimate that USMC combat engineer units will want to have a few hundred to a thousand SPAMRs on hand, with a contract in place to maintain/support existing units as well rapidly build more in the event of a large-scale conflict. In addition to the formation breaching version of SPAMR being developed for combat engineer units under this contract, GreenSight is actively pursuing variants on the concept to meet different military and civilian market needs. The first of these is a smaller version intended for Marine EOD team use, with enhanced stability, and a modular manipulator and sensing payload capability. We are also considering a terrestrial-only variant for clearing landmine fields. This version would be considerably simpler and cheaper, not requiring submergence or variable buoyancy systems, and can provide a safe, autonomous and low cost alternative to vehicle mounted chain mine rollers. We also see commercial applications for SPAMR in agriculture and construction. GreenSight has a considerable business in golf course maintenance, applying our SUAS for daily agricultural intelligence. One of the many tools used are heavy turf rollers which have been growing in popularity and are used frequently for finely maintained turf. The robotization of turf mowers is now growing in golf, and GreenSight sees a similar market for robotic versions of other professional turn maintenance tools. The SPAMR, because of its cylindrical construction and high surface pressure, can be modified with smooth wheels and marketed as an autonomous electric turf roller.

Keywords:
MCM, Robot, SWARM, surfzone, EOD, Breaching, Littoral, mine