Putting brakes on a mule. Whoa, Mule!!

US military says robotic pack mules are too noisy to use (2015)

The US military has reportedly shelved development of its robotic pack mule — the Boston Dynamics-built Legged Squad Support System or LS3. According to a report from Military.com, there are no "future experiments or upgrades planned" for the mechanical beast of burden, with the program in need of new contracts or support from senior military figures before it can be resurrected. And the reason for this parting of ways? LS3 was apparently too noisy to make a good soldier. Over the course of its development, LS3 was given updates to make it more autonomous, able to automatically follow humans and even respond to basic voice commands like "follow," "sit," and "stay." But, it seems it never really became all that quiet. In videos of the barrel-chested robot in action during military trials last summer, it sounds as loud as a sit-on lawnmower — definitely not the sort of companion you'd want bumbling alongside you on a nighttime patrol.

Army on Accelerated Path to Buy as Many as 5,700 Robotic Mules (2/9/2018)

Requirements for robotic mules go back at least to 2001 when the now canceled Future Combat Systems was conceived.An autonomous multifunctional utility logistics and equipment vehicle survived the FCS cancelation and was transferred to the follow-on Brigade Combat Team Modernization program, but that effort was eventually scrapped as well. Since then, development of robotic mules continued, with four of the vehicles reaching Afghanistan in 2012 for a battlefield assessment. The Lockheed Martin-built squad mission support system was deployed there for about five months. When the Army put out a call for robotic mules to take part in a vendor solution assessment in September and October, seven robot manufacturers were able to bring technically mature, off-the-shelf robotic mules.

After more than a decade of experimenting with robotic mules designed to take the load off overburdened foot soldiers, the service is on an accelerated path to field up to 5,700 squad multi-purpose equipment transport robotic vehicles in a winner-takes-all competition that may wrap up as early as 2019. Over the course of its development, LS3 was given updates to make it more autonomous, able to automatically follow humans and even respond to basic voice commands like "follow," "sit," and "stay." But, it seems it never really became all that quiet. In videos of the barrel-chested robot in action during military trials last summer, it sounds as loud as a sit-on lawnmower — definitely not the sort of companion you'd want bumbling alongside you on a nighttime patrol.

The program is using an “other transaction authority” contracting vehicle to rapidly transition the technology from experiments to a program of record. OTAs are normally used to bring in nontraditional contractors to make prototypes. The Army is in the middle of selecting a contractor after bringing in seven vendors with eight different vehicles in 2017 to perform operational tests. “That is significantly faster than we have been able to do previous efforts,” Maj. Gen. John George, director for force development, Army G-8, told reporters. “That is the beauty of the new OTA process. If you have a competition though OTA, you can go to procurement and turn it into a program of record,” George said. A typical program of this kind would take upwards of 10 years, he said. “The Army wants to go faster. It wants and needs to go faster,” he added.

But this is a “good news story,” he said. “We are doing that because we have learned to hack our own system” and by using the revised other transaction authority rules. “What has changed is that the transition mechanism provided in 10 USC 2371b (h), added by the 2016 NDAA, provides a greatly simplified way of transitioning the contracting. The follow-on production effort after a successful prototype OT can be executed as a production OT or awarded as a non-competitive procurement contract,” according to Richard Dunn, founder and consultant with the Strategic Institute for Innovation in Government Contracting.

Army Revamps Strategy to Acquire Robotic Mules (3/24/2017)

The Army intends to buy 20 robotic mules from manufacturers and send them out with brigades for a year-long operational test and evaluation, the service’s program manager in charge of unmanned ground systems said March 23. Bryan McVeigh, project manager for force protection, said a recent Army Requirements Oversight Council looking at the squad multipurpose equipment transport (SMET) vehicle put the breaks on the program, which was heading for fielding in the early 2020s. The council said, “Wait a minute guys, You’re laying out a standard program of record. This is taking too long. This is way too much testing. We’re not even sure this is what we want,” McVeigh said. Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Mark Milley instructed the PEO to go back and look at the things that really matter and get rid of the rest, McVeigh said.

Earlier in the conference, a senior service official said the proposed prices they had seen for SMETs had given officials “sticker shock.” “I’m not telling you what to bid on your price. But I am telling what we think it should cost,” McVeigh said. The vehicle after it reaches its assembly point will then have to switch over to an unmanned mode. “How do I pull what seems to be mutually exclusive design characteristics together?” McVeigh asked. That will be a tough problem for the manufacturers, he acknowledged.

The Army wants two basic configurations: one similar to the vehicles that have been tested and another that will have a seat and steering wheel so it can be optionally manned, he said. The reason for the optionally manned version is one of logistics. “How do I get from an airport to an assembly area? That kind of leads me to an optionally manned solution. There are not enough prime movers to tow all the systems that are supposed to be issued to the brigade,” he said.PEO force protection will proceed with an SMET rodeo as early as August, McVeigh said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Robotic Capabilities conference in Springfield, Virginia. How is it going to be operated? Will it use a cord, a joystick or follow soldiers using breadcrumbs? Can it be towed at 20, 30 or 50 miles per hour without flipping over? The more capability the robot makers offer, the higher the score on their evaluation, he said.

A request for information will be published “shortly,” he said. “I need your feedback to make sure what I have in mind is executable. This is absolutely critical.” He needs to know how long it will take to get a prototype built. As for delivering the models by August: “I need you to tell me if I’m on drugs,” he said. Companies participating will be reimbursed for their expenses.

There are four possible scenarios, McVeigh said. The first is that one of the manufacturers “hits it out of the park” and gives the Army exactly what it wants. He has the authority to then go into limited production with a traditional acquisition contract. Another scenario is that a couple of the models do well, but are not quite right. There would be new requirements written, some changes, and then a down-select to one vendor. The third outcome is: “Thank you all for playing. Pick up your trophies on the way out. We learned that what we were asking for isn’t in the art of the doable.” The Army would return to an engineering, manufacturing and development phase and open up the contract again. The fourth option simply is that the Army decides it doesn’t need this capability, he said.

A note to newbies to this blog: I almost always slice and dice articles, leave out critical material, paraphrase, and add comment for purposes of turning real life situations into teachable procurement examples. Do not rely on my renditions to know the full story, or intent, of the article -- read the original at the link(s) provided.