Multifunctional Utility/Logistics and Equipment (MULE) Vehicle Will Improve Soldier Mobility, Survivability and Lethality

摘要

The Army is on the cusp of a paradigm shift. It has been mandated that one-third of Army vehicles are to be robotic beginning in 2015. So what progress is the Army making. Just around the corner is a new breed of robots that will impact how the Army moves and fights. This journal article describes the MULE. The MULE is the multifunctional vehicle developed by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control (LM MFC) as part of the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. The MULE is a family of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) that will be in the 7,000 pound class of medium robots. Within 20 years, the MULE will be commonplace in every brigade in the Army. What makes these systems unique is the mobility, processing power, networked connectivity, and robot size. The MULE family consists of three robotic vehicles: the MULE Transport (MULE-T), the MULE Countermine (MULE-C), and the Armed Robotic Vehicle-Assault (Light) (ARV-A(L)). Each variant will lighten Soldier burdens in the near future. The MULE family is based on a common mobility platform that serves as the vehicle's backbone. The common mobility platform is a 6-wheeled chassis housing power and propulsion systems, computers, Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) hardware, and vehicle cooling components. By using this common mobility platform, maintenance will be simplified and common across formations. This will ease logistics burdens for multiple spare parts as well as decrease the amount of training Soldiers will need to conduct repairs. Power and propulsion within the common mobility platform will provide a vehicle that has extreme capabilities for its weight. With its engineering model, the Engineering Evaluation Unit (EEU), the MULE has demonstrated power to tow a vehicle 3.5 times heavier than itself. This flexibility will allow the robot to support limited vehicle recovery operations within brigades, freeing Soldiers and equipment from these dull and sometimes dangerous tasks.