Marines Develop Universal Remote For Unmanned Systems

Unmanned systems, which are on the rise in the Marine Corps, are designed to do the dull, dangerous and dirty.  And now managing unmanned aircraft, vehicles and ground robots can all be done with one controller called the Tactical Robotic Controller, or the TRC.

“We had five different robots using five different controllers and five different battery types,” said Gunnery Sgt. Steven C. Sullivan, project officer with the ground combat element at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. “Now, we’re trying to standardize everything.”

For the past two years, personnel at the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab have worked on the TRC, a fourth-generation prototype, to create the ideal controller for all unmanned assets.

“When this controller started out, it was literally a suitcase with joystick controllers, knobs and push buttons for every command,” Sullivan said. “Here at the Warfighting Lab, we broke it down into a controller that works not only on this system, but anybody who has any robot anywhere can come give us their data package, we can load it into this common controller and it can control the aircraft.”

The TRC prototype hasn’t just dramatically changed in size since its early days, it is now also much easier to use.

“We designed the controller to be as close to today’s operating systems – Xboxes, Gameboys, iPhones and everything else – as we can get,” Sullivan said. “It doesn’t get any more complicated than that.”

The TRC features directional joysticks like those on any electronic gaming system controller as well as a touch-screen display. The controller pack can be worn on a Marine’s back for easy maneuverability. The display screen is able to show up to four camera views from the unmanned system or can opt for single viewpoint display.

With the creation of the TRC, battalions and units can now use the controller to manage all their unmanned assets with one simple system, although only one system can be controlled at a time.

“The TRC, which is eight pounds of hardware, can control close to 16 or 17 different unmanned assets from different

vendors right now,” said Brent J. Azzarelli, Chief Robotics Engineer for USMC/USN Programs in Dahlgren, Va.

Although many of the new robots being developed by the Marine Corps as well as the TRC offer exciting possibilities for Marines worldwide, the systems still have a lot of certification and testing to go through.

“We’re going to get it to Marines as fast as we possibly can without jeopardizing anyone’s life,” Sullivan said. “Why give them a piece of equipment that’s going to fail them, especially when their lives depend on it?”

For now, personnel at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory are working hard to ensure Marines receive the best possible unmanned systems and controller to ensure Marines are protected from unnecessary harm.

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By Cpl. Chelsea Flowers Anderson

 From www.marines.dodlive.mil

NRL Charges Marine Corps Expeditionary Power Requirements

Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Electronics Science and Technology Division  are working to help the U.S. Marine Corps  (USMC) reduce expeditionary energy supply needs and risks and increase the effectiveness of forward deployed forces.

“One of the most significant challenges currently facing the Marine Corps is the need to supply sufficient electricity to individual Marines in forward operating bases,” said Robert Walters, head, NRL Solid State Devices Branch. “Mobile photovoltaics are a technology that can address these needs by leveraging emerging, flexible, high efficiency photovoltaic technology.”

The military’s need to reduce both fuel and battery resupply is a real time requirement for increasing combat effectiveness and decreasing vulnerability.  The overarching objective of the USMC Expeditionary Energy Strategy is to increase operational energy efficiency on the battlefield through the combination of on-installation alternative energy production and energy demand reduction.

This subsequently is projected to reduce fuel consumed, per Marine, per day, by 50 percent and reduce total weight of batteries carried by nearly 200 thousand pounds.

It has been recognized that photovoltaic (PV) cells are essentially the only renewable energy source that can meet this challenge. NRL, in collaboration with MicroLink Devices, Design Intelligence Incorporated, and the USMC Expeditionary Energy Office (E2O), have developed and prototyped a new photovoltaic system to meet the unique needs of USMC Expeditionary Power for robust, high-efficiency solar panels suitable for adaptation to rechargeable batteries in the field.

The mobile solar power (MSP) prototype, capitalizing on recent advances in solar cell technology that allow the manufacture of high-efficiency, flexible solar cells, consists of an array of single-junction solar cells with a power conditioning circuit that maximizes array power production and charges a standard, military issue, high capacity rechargeable lithium-ion battery (BB-2590).

Flexible solar cells with light to electricity conversion efficiency as high as 30 percent have been demonstrated in multi-cell panels and although field tests are still in progress, initial modeling, simulation, and experimentation of the nearly 150 square-inch deployed array have shown considerable promise toward future progress, producing more than 11 Watts per 1-sun air mass (AM) 1.5 illumination.

Story provided by the Naval Research Laboratory

Better Than Bottled Water

Water purification specialists with Combat Logistics Battalion 24, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit , put their water purification systems to the test on a Moroccan beach, during the bi-lateral exercise named African Lion 2012.

The Marines assembled a Tactical Water Purification System  (TWPS) and Lightweight Water Purification System  (LWPS) on the beach to turn ocean water into a sustainable, potable water source for the Marines conducting training operations with the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces , and test the systems on a foreign water source.

“Instead of bringing thousands of pallets of water ashore, this is what we use,” said Cpl. Kyle Slusher, a water purification specialist with CLB 24. “This is what’s going to sustain our force, and we can use it wherever there is a water source.”

Marines  use water purification systems to sustain their forces and also to provide water for a number of other operations such as disaster relief, and humanitarian assistance, according to Cpl. Cody Sorrell, a water purification specialist.

“We can use this capability for any sort of mission where Marines are going to be there a long period of time,” Sorrell said. “You can’t conduct operations without a sustainable water source.”

The current mission is to provide a clean water source for Marines training ashore in the desert landscape of Morocco . The water these Marines are sustaining the training units ashore who are working with members of the Moroccan military.

Without this capability, the logistics problem of supplying clean water to the shores of Morocco would become a problem of time and money that would distract from the mission of training between the Marines and Moroccans.

The TWPS is 10,000 pounds, and able to purify approximately 10,000 gallons of water a day by pumping it through a series of filters, which reduce the TDS (total dissolved solids) rating to a level more than fit for human consumption.

Pound for pound for Marines on the ground, it is more than worth its weight in water.

“It’s better than bottled water,” said Slusher.

According to the Marion, Ohio native, the average bottle of water has a TDS ratting between 400 and 500. Using the TWPS, water purification specialist can reduce the TDS ratting to 20.

“A bottle of water from the TWPS is more pure than what you would get from a factory,” he said. “It’s because the only thing we have to add back into the water is chlorine to preserve it.”

The TWPS has the ability to purify water ranging from lake water to nuclear contaminated water, he said.

“If a nuclear bomb went off behind me, we would be able to provide contaminate free water in an hour,” he said.

The LWPS is a smaller version of the TWPS. While not able to boast the same range of capabilities as the TWPS, its use is focused on supplying a small force. Weighing 3,580 pounds the system is able to provide around 2,000 gallons of water a day.

“We use this somewhere we have a really small foot print,” he said.

The last opportunity the Marines had to test their system’s capabilities was in September 2011 at Fort Pickett, Va. , where they filtered lake water, substantially easy to filter in comparison to the salty ocean water they now face in Morocco, according to Slusher.

“Right now we’re showing we can get in, set up and operate it anywhere,” he said.

Story written by Sgt. Richard Blumenstein

On location in Morocco

Power Prosthetics Propel Service Members to Better Lives

By Terri Moon Cronk

American Forces Press Service

BETHESDA, Md., April 27, 2012 – Marine Corps Cpl. Garrett Carnes was on a clearing mission in Afghanistan‘s southern Helmand province in February when he stepped on a pressure plate that exploded and cost him both legs.

Two months later, the former squad leader was fitted with prosthetic legs -- one with the X2 microprocessor power knee, and the new combination of a bionic foot and ankle at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center here.

Carnes, 22, called his first steps “motivating.” The gift of being able to walk so soon exceeded his expectations. “Mentally, it feels good to get back on my feet,” he said, taking steps on a slightly elevated ramp with parallel bars to grasp. “It’s a little awkward, like a baby who’s learning to walk.”

Such steps are taken every day at Walter Reed’s prosthetics gait lab, where rapidly changing technology is giving active-duty service members the chance to walk again and, in some cases, return to duty, said Dr. Charles Scoville, chief of amputee services in the orthopedics and rehabilitation department.

First considered impossible to design, the X2 and higher grade X3 knees have provided a new way of life for above-the-knee amputees, Scoville said. New microprocessors have five sensors, compared with the original C-Leg, which had two.

Now, a combination of gyroscopes, accelerators and hydraulics provide the knee with greater stability, mobility and versatility by recognizing actions, officials said. The multiple sensors can determine when the wearer wants to sit down or go up and down ramps and stairs, all without presetting the limb with a remote device, as required by the former technology.

The first prosthetic limbs, Scoville said, had mechanical knees that were neither limber nor conducive to the warfighter. The wearer had to swing the leg outward and project himself forward to walk.

The Biom ankle -- a combination foot and ankle prosthetic that works with the X2 or X3 knee and is specifically designed for returning warfighters -- is the newest device that enables flexibility.

Scoville describes the knee and ankle/foot combination as more intuitive than older versions.

“It does the work for you,” he said. By replacing the once-rigid prostheses, the new, lighter and user-friendly limbs allow enough flexibility to stand on one leg, and step or walk backward without falling, he said.

Army Staff Sgt. Billy Costello demonstrated his knee, foot and ankle flexibility by sitting on the floor and stretching to pull his foot toward him. He also lost a leg by stepping on an improvised explosive device while on a clearance mission.

“We had just taken out 19 IEDs,” he said. “I found one more the hard way.”

Costello was another patient who progressed faster than his doctors expected. Soon to be discharged, he is an intern at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. and plans to enter the National Guard when he returns to North Carolina.

“I still want to support the guys,” he said, adding that he would deploy if his medical condition allows it, but quickly added he doesn’t want to be a “liability” to his unit.

“The vast majority of patients won’t return to active duty,” Scoville said. “Our goal is to bring them to their highest level of function.”

Scoville said 1,453 troops with severe limb loss have been fitted with prostheses since December 2001 and of those, some 300 service members returned to duty, with 53 redeploying to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We view patients as tactical athletes,” Scoville said. “They don’t have an off-season and they don’t know when their next game will be."

Marine Corps Cpl. Rory Hammill plans to resume his active lifestyle once he’s discharged from active-duty. Before an accident in Marja, Afghanistan claimed one of his legs, he was a runner, snowboarder and surfer, all of which he hopes to resume he said, close to the level of ability he once had.

These service members are just a few of the 200-250 patients who are fitted with prosthetic limbs each month at Walter Reed, said David Laufer, chief of orthotics and prosthetics services. By contrast, he added, the civilian sector produces about the same number per year. In addition to limbs, the lab also creates hands that can move fingers, with such dexterity that they can operate a computer mouse and perform other daily tasks. Designing and developing hands is the lab’s niche, Laufer said, noting that work is ongoing to enable hands to act intuitively like ankles, feet and knees.

Far fewer hands are made in the lab than legs. “The standard of care is shifting,” Scofield said. “It’s made a significant impact on the wounded warriors who live with these advances. We want people to know we’re restoring their lives.”