# Crusher Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle Unveiled



## 3rd Herd (20 Jul 2007)

Mods please remove if already posted. Searched "Crusher" with no results:

Crusher Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle Unveiled
May 5, 2006 
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and U.S. Army unveiled the Crusher unmanned ground combat vehicle (UGCV) in a ceremony hosted by Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center. 

The Crusher vehicle is a follow-on and upgrade to the Spinner vehicle that was developed in a prior DARPA/Army program. 

Crusher is a six-wheeled, all-wheel drive, hybrid electric, skid-steered, unmanned ground vehicle. 

The vehicle weighs 14,000 pounds fully fueled and is designed to carry a 3,000-pound payload. At the 17,000 pound total weight, two Crusher vehicles can be carried by a single C-130H aircraft at substantial range. 

Crusher can also carry up to 8,000 pounds of payload and armor without affecting its mobility. 

Crusher represents a new class of UGCVs developed under the DARPA/Army UGCV-Perception for Off-Road Robots Integration (UPI) program. Crusher is a highly mobile vehicle designed to be unmanned. 

It is equipped with state-of-the-art perception capabilities and will be used to validate technologies necessary for an unmanned ground vehicle to perform military missions autonomously. Crusher will be equipped with representative sensing and weapons payloads for planned field experiments. 

"The Crusher and its predecessor, the Spinner, demonstrate the realm of the possible with regard to a combination of autonomous behaviors, hybrid electric propulsion and robust vehicle design," said Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Research and Technology) Dr. Thomas Killion. 

"The Future Combat Systems (Brigade Combat Team (BCT)) program has been working with DARPA's UPI program for some time now, leveraging their advancements in robotics field testing, perception algorithm development, autonomy, and, more recently, in understanding wheeled system design characteristics for mobility and remote control latency and bandwidth effects on mobility performance," said Maj. Gen. Charles Cartwright, program manager Future Combat Systems (Brigade Combat Team)...................
http://aero-defense.ihs.com/news/2006/darpa-crusher-ugcv.htm


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## Kirkhill (20 Jul 2007)

Not previously seen 3rd Herd.  Glad you found it.
Here are some other links that seem to give more information and photos.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/crusher.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/crusher1.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/crusher2.htm


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## retiredgrunt45 (20 Jul 2007)

These unmanned vehicles would be great to put, in the lead of a convoy, so if there is an IED, it would probably hit the unmanned vehicle first and no one gets hurt or killed, save for the damage done to an expensive vehicle.


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## Kirkhill (20 Jul 2007)

Or perhaps they make up the entire convoy (if it is only ferrying supplies).  Perhaps with a couple of manned versions buried in the body of the convoy to maintain situational awareness and responsiveness.


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## Colin Parkinson (20 Jul 2007)

Hmmm looks like a cut down Saracen 

The technology would be good for vehicles carrying dangerous goods like fuel or ammo hauling, plus for dealing with NBC warfare.


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## Kirkhill (20 Jul 2007)

Colin P said:
			
		

> Hmmm looks like a cut down Saracen
> 
> The technology would be good for vehicles carrying dangerous goods like fuel or ammo hauling, plus for dealing with NBC warfare.



Funny you should say that.  According to Army Technology the undercart is supplied by Timoney.


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## Colin Parkinson (20 Jul 2007)

Kirkhill said:
			
		

> Funny you should say that.  According to Army Technology the undercart is supplied by Timoney.



If I recall Timoney success rate in fielding useful AFV is awful. They built a bunch of AFV's for the Irish army that were quite disliked by their crews.


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## Greymatters (20 Jul 2007)

retiredgrunt45 said:
			
		

> These unmanned vehicles would be great to put, in the lead of a convoy, so if there is an IED, it would probably hit the unmanned vehicle first and no one gets hurt or killed, save for the damage done to an expensive vehicle.



I sincerely doubt the higher-ups would use such an expensive and hard-to-replace vehicle as 'IED-bait".


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