How Electrification and Autonomy Can Unlock the Potential of Unmanned Ground Vehicles

Electrification and autonomous technologies open a whole new world of possibilities for the defense sector. While there are certainly barriers and challenges to integrating these technologies and making them commonplace in the near term, there is also huge potential to revolutionize the state of warfare and defense, especially when considering unmanned ground vehicle platforms. At large, an electric and autonomous future in the defense sector will greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of military operations, while also substantially reducing the environmental footprint, fully burdened cost of fuel and risk to human life. Likewise, purely electric propulsion systems do not emit any exhaust gases and are much quieter than conventional counterparts, which is an asset for stealth efforts.

Even though these vehicles may not be a reality for quite some time given the need for significant technology and infrastructure advancements, engineers should be diving headfirst into the design possibilities that this sort of transformation unlocks. To fully maximize the benefits that autonomy and electrification can bring, a completely new vehicle architecture is required, making room to re-envision what these vehicles could look like, what technology can be integrated and how much more power can be squeezed from having more design freedom.