Odds and endsStrap-on UGV kit

Published 6 October 2009

Now you can turn you car into a UGV (unmanned ground vehicle): A retrofit from a Utah company allows you to turn your car into a UGV in about four hours

Sandy, Utah-based Kairo Autonomi has a nifty product: a kit which allows you to turn your car into a UGV (unmanned ground vehicle) — well, it allows the U.S. military to do so, in any event.

The Pronto4 Agnostic Autonomy System enables optionally unmanned vehicle navigation by providing a universal retrofit kit for existing ground vehicle or surface vessel platforms. This compact, modularly constructed hardware system is capable of installation anywhere in the field in a four-four-four process — a four-person team can install four backpack-sized modules in four hours. With the Pronto4, you can have an unmanned solution right now.

The simplicity of the Pronto4 allows any existing vehicle or vessel with a steering wheel to be retrofitted in the field instead of taking the vehicle out of the field and adapting it in the factory. Also, retrofitting in the field keeps the existing vehicle supply chain in place. The modular construction of the Pronto4 permits field component exchange and local storage of auxiliary parts as well. These benefits reduce the total cost of ownership for the system.

When the Pronto4 system is installed on a vehicle, it becomes an optionally unmanned, drive-by-wire system capable of tele-operation or semi-autonomous travel. As such, the UGV is still available for dual-use in manual mode; all normally accepted manual driving controls are maintained. If a human operator is sitting behind the wheel of the Pronto4 system while it is controlled by a remote operator or local computer, simply tapping the brake (just like a cruise control) will turn control back to the human operator in the Pronto4 system.

The Pronto4 system consists of three sub-systems — power/computing, vehicle, and actuation. Installation is minimally invasive to vehicle sub-systems and includes steering control, brake and throttle (pedal) control, transmission control, and ancillary functions such as lights, blinkers, wipers, washer, horn, and door locks. The reproducible, universal retrofit mechtronics for the drive-by-wire portion of the Pronto4 system leverages the infrastructure of existing vehicle platforms. The company says that the retrofit kit is compatible with the Kairos Autonomi ProntoMimic software, as well as third-party pathing products.