Research Tasks

The RCTA is a consortium of research organizations sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL) designed to conduct basic and applied research in uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) technology. The consortium is led by General Dynamics Land Systems; other participants include Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, Qinetiq North America, Caltech and JPL. At the top level, work in the program is organized around maneuvers in unstructured environments, human-robot execution of complex missions, and mobile manipulation. JPL participation includes research on quadruped mobility, 3D perception and mapping, terrain classification, dynamic scene understanding, team localization, and grasp planning.