Development of off-road autonomy for unmanned ground vehicles

Norwegian Defence Research Establishment  |  Marius Thoresen, Magnus Baksaas, Niels Hygum Nielsen, Eilert André Mentzoni, Morten Hanevold, David Kolden, Brage Gerdssønn Eikanger, Kim Mathiassen

The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment has developed and evaluated a modular autonomy stack on its Milrem Themis unmanned ground vehicle, named Tor, to enhance off-road navigation capabilities. This system integrates perception, motion planning, and trajectory tracking to navigate without predefined paths or satellite positioning, aiming to reduce operator workload during tactical military operations.

Testing conducted across diverse benchmark routes revealed that while the platform successfully traverses open fields and wide dirt roads, it struggles in complex environments like dense forests. These trials highlighted critical limitations in semantic terrain classification and robust decision-making under challenging conditions. Currently, the system's navigation choices are occasionally influenced by randomness rather than consistent reasoning, preventing immediate operational deployment. Nevertheless, this research establishes a repeatable evaluation methodology and a foundational framework for future iterations. Ongoing development aims to achieve reliable, fully autonomous UGV operations in highly demanding and contested physical environments.

Comment

Off-road autonomous navigation remains a critical bottleneck for tactical unmanned systems. Dense vegetation and complex terrain degrade sensor perception and decision-making algorithms. Military forces cannot rely on fully autonomous platforms in contested forest environments yet. Hybrid crewed-uncrewed teaming will therefore remain the primary operational model for the near future.

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