USMC announced its project “Automated Expeditionary Airfield Assembly,” seeking for robots that can do the “grunt” work of laying down the matting used to quickly build-up Expeditionary Airfields (EAF), in littoral beachheads and other remote locations.

According to the operational requirement, of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal, these robots must “manipulate and position heavy EAF mat sections with precision” while enduring “harsh environmental and operational conditions.”

This current physically-demanding and labor-intensive task is executed by combat Marines that now can seek for some relief. In details, the USMC is envisioning robots with sufficient autonomy to “navigate and control without human assistance, which includes obstacle avoidance, path planning and grasping.”

The project sees 3 different phases.

Phase I of the project involves demonstrating “the technical feasibility of a robotic system capable of automating or augmenting the assembly of EAF Prefabricated Surfaced Aluminum (PSA) Flat Top-Nested (Top-N) Trackway mats.” During this phase, the robot projects will be evaluated on metrics such as “payload capacity, reach, manipulation precision, power consumption and operational endurance.”

Phase II calls for a functional prototype capable of automated or semi-automated operations. “The robot shall be able to handle the PSA mats in some manner to aid in the assemble of the airfield, be a closed system and be able to operate in a realistic environment,” the SBIR specified. “The system will be judged on feasibility, time to assemble, ease of use and overall size and mass.”

In the final Phase III, the systems will be deployed for field-testing, which will include operating in a battlespace under “electrical, environmental and cyber threats.”

According to the SBIR, the selected system must demonstrate sustained operation in “deployed environments, achieving significant reductions in manning requirements, operational costs and/or deployment time.” The USMC is also working on new lightweight materials to ease the difficulty of expeditionary airfield construction.

Follow us on Telegram, Facebook and X.