Abstract
Utilizing military convoys in humanitarian missions allows for increased overall performance of healthcare logistical operations. To properly gauge performance of autonomous ground convoy systems in military humanitarian operations, a proper framework for comparative performance metrics needs to be established. Past efforts in this domain have had heavy focus on narrow and specialized areas of convoy performance such as human factors, trust metrics, or string stability analysis. This article reviews available Army doctrine for manned convoy requirements toward healthcare missions and establishes a framework to compare performance of autonomous convoys, using metrics such as spacing error, separation distance, and string stability. After developing a framework of comparison for the convoy systems, this article compares the performance of two autonomous convoys with unique convoy control strategies to demonstrate the application and utility of the framework.
Highlights
From a military perspective, a ground vehicle convoy is a column of two or more vehicles under a single leader, traveling from a set origin to an objective destination (Center for Army Lessons Learned, 2010)
To limit the scope of the effort, we focused on service-specific doctrine from the U.S Army due to their mission being most closely tied to the sustained utilization of ground convoys
We performed a review of Army doctrine to derive requirements for convoy performance toward delivery of healthcare resources
Summary
A ground vehicle convoy is a column of two or more vehicles under a single leader, traveling from a set origin to an objective destination (Center for Army Lessons Learned, 2010). Even though the topic of convoys has been thoroughly dissected and studied by the Army (Killblane, 2013; Killblane, 2015; MPRI Kuwait Observer Controller Team, 2003), the advent of autonomous vehicles has led to modernization efforts to improve convoys through the addition of autonomy. These efforts aim to improve convoy efficiency and performance, reduce the risks to the Soldier, and decrease the overall cost of operations (Green, 2011). In addition to military research, there are various other civilian organizations looking to develop and utilize autonomous ground convoy (AGC) systems Efforts such as the Netherlands’ European Truck Platooning Challenge (European Truck Platooning, 2021) and the European Commission’s
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