EOD remains most prominent application for French UGVs
From left to right : Barakuda from Shark Robotics, Aurochs from ISL and Optio-X20 from Nexter. (Photo: Jean-Marc Tanguy)
Dealing with IEDs and mines appears still to be a core focus for French UGV developers, although some progress is being made on fully autonomous systems.
A dozen French UGV manufacturers recently demonstrated different stages of progress in their field in a test event at the Nexter facility in Versailles-Satory.
Some of the UGV platforms on display have been delivered in recent months, although most remain at the pilot stage.
Notable UGVs include the Arquus Robotlab, based on the 4x4 Dagger PVP, with a platooning capability to follow a lead vehicle; and the Aurochs from the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis, which uses the STAMINA AI system to navigate by following an itinerary stored in its internal memory.
The largest UGV in the presentation was
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