ARTUS (Autonomous Rough-terrain Transport Unmanned Ground Vehicles Swarm), a European Defence Agency-managed project, aims at the development of a fleet of unmanned ground vehicles.

The project has been successfully completed with a final demonstration of a system, which involved the deployment of a small swarm of intelligent and autonomously operating vehicles to support infantry platoons during their missions. 

According to a relevant announcement, whether for transport or observation missions, a swarm can increase troops’ capabilities by supporting them in hostile environments, in mountainous or forested terrain, increasing their protection level and allowing the greater mobility of a unit. 

Completion of ARTUS comes as Europe’s defence community meets in Brussels between May 30 to June 1, 2023, for European Defence Innovation Days, in which numerous Greek and Cypriot companies participated. 

Also read: EDA | European Defence Innovation Day – Conference & Exhibition

The ARTUS project is an example of the collaborative role of both industry and EDA in developing new technology for the benefit of the EU Armed Forces.  

The implementation of ARTUS, a project selected under the 2019 call for proposals for the EU Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR), was launched in February 2021 and ended in January 2023 with a budget of €1.5 million and a 24-month duration. 

Using two autonomous ground robots embedded with a computer, the system works by allowing interaction between a geolocalized operator and the swarm, using a Combat Management System and a fleet navigation algorithm. 

The guidance algorithm ensures certain constraints in both the autonomous and supervised motion of the swarm, following either a predefined path, or managed by a geolocalized operator or tele-operated system.  

With the capability to avoid obstacles, as well as collisions with other platforms, a single operator can manage the entire swarm not only by defining the desired path, but the collective motion behaviour, too. Also, the swarm can continue the mission even if one of the systems loses its communication or mobility capabilities.  

Also read: DSEI 2021 | Hard-kill C-UAS solution embraces UGV technology – VIDEO

The ARTUS consortium was led by Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung E.V. (Germany) and also encompassed ONERA (France), Diehl Defence (Germany) and charismaTec (Austria) as well as other highly innovative SMEs. 

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