Unmanned Vehicles – Undisclosed Client
What was the problem?
Our client had three potential applications of Unmanned Ground Vehicles, where they were seeking to reduce risk to the current security patrols. Being a un proven technology, they required technical analysis as well as de-risking activities to explore the benefits as well as the technological and operational risk.
What solutions did you provide?
We put together a market research study, which quickly (in a period of less than 4 weeks) which identified which use case had the biggest potential impact from the application of Unmanned Ground Vehicles. This study was used to brief senior stake holders and formed the basis of a rapid technology assessment project that ended up with a 6-week demonstration of the identified solution, within a simulated deployment and with the target users being trained and transitioned to an operational state in a benign environment.
This activity included the integration of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle control room being integrated into the back of an armoured vehicle as well as the creation of safety cases and technical metrics to measure both the capability and effectiveness of the new capability.
As a part of this we conduct RF modelling and data capture in order to de-risk the communications deployment (based on WiMAX technology), which included the modelling of high resolution terrain data and the physical demonstration which recorded actual link data from a physical location, allowing us to demonstrate the viability of radio communications within the intended area of operations.
What proven results can you showcase?
Our work allowed the client to move from a small scale study to a £3 million pound demonstration, that paved the way for the procurement of a Unmanned Capability. Senior stakeholders commented that the approach that Xi Systems took set the bar for future capability demonstrations in terms of rigorous technical output as well as straightforward evidence of how a new capability could remove risk to people on the ground.