In 2018, Safran Electronics & Defense had won the Science and Technology Project (PST) Furious from the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA), aimed at developing three robot demonstrators. After conclusive field trials, the DGA has just awarded it a new contractual tranche known as the “optional tranche” of the FURIOUS Program (FUturs Innovative Robotic Systems as OUtilS for the benefit of the embarked and disembarked combatant).

Safran Electronics & Defense, part of the Safran group, is a world leader in optronics, avionics, electronics and mission-critical software for the civil and defense markets. It equips more than 1,000 ships, 25,000 land vehicles and 10,000 aircraft worldwide.

Its know-how enables it to develop autonomous capabilities for land (robotics) and air (dronics) platforms: automatic planning and piloting, navigation and geolocation, semantic 3D perception of the environment, AI-based processing, and critical onboard electronics and software.

The FURIOUS program

For the firm portion of the FURIOUS program, which ended with Safran’s successful tests at the Urban Combat Training Center (Sissone military camp), the company had to ” work on the concept of a modular architecture, both hardware and software, designed to empower any ground platform, manned or not.”

This architecture is deployed on the three platforms of the FURIOUS system.

To complete this first step, Safran Electronics & Defense teamed up with Effidence, Kompai, Sominex, Technical Studio and 4D Virtualiz. It had also collaborated with major French robotics laboratories: the CNRS, Institut Pascal, IRSTEA, LORIA, Mines de Paris as well as with The Chair on the Augmented Soldier, set up within the laboratory of the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan in 2017.

The Furious TSP consists of developing 3 robot demonstrators of various sizes, intended for different missions in several kinds of environments. The largest of the three robots is in fact eRider, an autonomous multi-mission 4×4 developed by Safran Electronics & Defense in collaboration with Valeo and PSA in 2016, it can, for example, carry wounded, supply. The other two are equipped with tracks and much smaller, the largest can move up and down stairs, open doors and thus explore buildings. The three robots are equipped with an optronic ball.

The optional tranche

This new phase aims to optimize the architecture of the FURIOUS system and to make the robots’ autonomy functionalities more robust (tracking of points of passage, replay of trajectories, leader tracking and autonomous target rallying, etc.) for operations in more complex, unstructured environments.

Anticipating future programs

Safran Electronics & Defense has demonstrated the relevance and credibility of its solutions in concrete projects such as FURIOUS or iMugs, a similar project financed by the European Defense Fund, launched in 2020.

The company states:

“The confirmation of the operational contribution made by autonomization functions in many use cases, the relevance of a reasoned incremental approach and the convergence towards adaptable modular (kit) solutions make it possible to envisage in the short term the launch of development programs on critical bricks, thus preparing future programs.”

The launch of the Vulcain Force by the French Army Staff (EMAT), with the aim of “thinking about the integration of robots and artificial intelligence in the battlefield” by 2040, is a strong signal for Safran to send to players in the field. The first pilot units should be operational in 2030.

Translated from Robotique terrestre : La DGA attribue une nouvelle tranche du projet FURIOUS à Safran Electronics & Defense