Design of a 3D printed unmanned ground vehicle

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) performs a variety of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. The MITRE Corporation has developed a low-cost, 3D printed unmanned aerial system (UAS) that utilizes off-the-shelf components to aid in accomplishing these mission sets. This project's goal is to augment the unmanned fleet's mission capability with an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that will provide key functionality beyond that of the UAS, such as idling at a specified location for a long period of time, maneuvering in close-quartered areas, or travelling long distances. Working closely with The MITRE Corporation and the USMC, we have developed a prototype of a UGV system. The current iteration meets most of the main design goals, such as being printed without support material, operating with both manual and waypoint (GPS) control, costing under $1000, using off-the-shelf, easy-to-obtain components, and being backpackable, or portable enough for a Marine to carry on foot in a backpack. Ongoing design challenges include reducing the print time to under 24 hours and testing a robust communications link over LTE. To demonstrate the full capabilities of the final system, three use case scenarios will be executed, which demonstrate the portfolio of functionality that the UGV presents.