Kratos Defense & Security Solutions’ Unmanned Systems Division (USD) has received confirmation that its Autonomous Impact Protection Vehicle (AIPV) has officially been approved for “autonomous operation on public roadways in the first of many planned states in the USA for roadway line painting operations.”

This approval transitions the AIPV, also known as the Autonomous Truck Mounted Attenuator (ATMA), from the validation phase of deployment to “standard safety critical equipment ready for operational use with trained roadside construction crews.” 

“This is yet another significant milestone accomplishment in the emerging unmanned highway safety market, and Kratos is leading the way,” says Kevin Ferguson, General Manager of Kratos MSI.

Designed in partnership with Royal Truck & Equipment Company, Kratos’ AIPV is a “first-of-its kind work zone vehicle” designed to advance safety for roadway maintenance crews.

The vehicle provides a layer of protection to workers from the traveling public, as it is positioned behind road construction crews. The AIPV removes the driver from a dangerous assignment of driving the vehicle designed for the specific purpose of being a mobile crash barrier, which ultimately increases work zone safety.  

“Kratos is the world’s first to operate an autonomous safety vehicle in a roadway work zone, and this accomplishment is the result of our continued strategy to expand and offer life-saving products in that important area, and our ability to develop and implement new technology at an affordable cost,” Ferguson adds.
  
According to Kratos, the AIPV system was adapted from an autonomous Leader/Follower system that Kratos Defense originally developed for military ground robotics applications enabling an unmanned “follower vehicle” to follow the path of a human-driven “leader vehicle.” 

Kratos says that the AIPV Leader/Follower system is an “electro-mechanical retrofit kit” that includes an advanced navigation system accurate to “+/- 6 inches,” and is operational in both GPS and GPS-denied operation.

Some of the other system components of the AIPV include an encrypted Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications system, advanced front- and side-view obstacle detection/avoidance, an active safety system, redundancy, and several user definable controls. 

During operation, velocity, heading, and position information from the leader vehicle is transmitted to the unmanned AIPV in packets of data called eCrumbs. Thanks to this transmitted data, the AIPV knows precise position, speed, and direction of the leader vehicle as it travels along the intended route.

“We will be deploying these systems worldwide over the coming years, we are extremely proud to have developed and implemented this life saving technology, and we are looking for this business to be another key long term growth driver for Kratos,” comments Steve Fendley, President of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division.