Activities in the research area Autonomy and Guided Weapons focus on unmanned platforms with automated functionality in military applications, across the land, maritime, and air domains. The Guided Weapons research area is focused on the analysis and assessment of guided weapons in all domains.

The research includes the development and evaluation of functions aimed at achieving desired behaviour, as well as performance evaluation of weapon systems, individual weapons and vehicles. Examples of functions being studied include vehicle control, positioning and navigation, trajectory and route planning, fault detection and management, and mission planning.

The research focuses on military-specific issues and the main clients are the Government Offices (Ministry of Defence and Ministry for Foreign Affairs), the Swedish Armed Forces and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV).

Autonomous Systems

The term autonomous is often used for technical systems that are capable of carrying out complex tasks, whereas automatic is used for systems that can perform relatively simple tasks. A technical system can be autonomous in one or several sub-functions, and a fully autonomous system is automated in all of the functions it is required to perform.

For unmanned vehicles, this means that functions normally carried out by a pilot, driver, or other operator must be automated. Examples include vehicle control, trajectory and route planning, navigation, fault detection, fault handling, decision-making, and mission planning. For a vehicle to be regarded as a fully autonomous system, additional task-specific functions must also be automated, such as target identification, target localisation, and target tracking.

For a group of vehicles to operate together and be controlled as a single unit by one or a small number of operators, automated and decentralised coordination is required so that the operators are not overloaded.

The work in this area includes studies and the development of algorithms that enable the automation of unmanned platforms. To validate the research and to assess technologies and concepts of employment, simulations, experiments, and field trials are conducted. Experimental platforms are developed to support this experimental and field-trial activity. Experiments and field trials are essential for understanding the practical challenges of unmanned systems with automated functionality and for bringing research results closer to practical applications and capability development within the Swedish Armed Forces.

Guided Weapons

Activities in the Guided Weapons research area focus on the analysis and evaluation of guided weapons in all domains. The ability to assess the performance of guided weapons is built up through research on individual subsystems and complete weapon systems.

The ability to assess the performance of guided weapons is built up through research on both individual subsystems and complete weapon systems. Within the research area, performance assessments are carried out not only for individual weapons but also for platforms and weapon systems, including simulated duels between weapon and platform or between weapon and weapon. A prerequisite for this work is the ability to translate expert knowledge in relevant sub-fields into models and usable simulation tools. The results of these assessments are used in threat analysis, as decision support for the procurement and modification of materiel, and as technical support to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.