academy of robotics

Kar-go delivers for the Royal Air Force

Discover how we worked with the Royal Air Force to automate their logistics.

THE CHALLENGE

Saving time for highly
trained personnel.

Covering over 1,190 acres, RAF Brize Norton is the largest airbase in the UK. The scale of the site makes tasks such as transporting anything around the base a very time-consuming process. These errands cut into either precious leisure time, or take time away from the jobs these highly-skilled personnel were trained to do.

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SOLUTION SUMMARY

Automating
errands

ATHENA MOBILE
COMMAND HUB

KAR-GO
VEHICLES

Academy of Robotics has developed a complete autonomous operating system including custom-designed autonomous delivery vehicles, the software and operating system and a mobile Command Hub facility. These self-driving vehicles are electric and the mobile Command Hub is solar-powered making it, not only an autonomous, but also a green logistics solution. 

By bringing this complete system to RAF Brize Norton, we could offer a way for the Royal Air Force to be able to move items autonomously. However, to comply with the security requirements to operate on a military base, we had to invent new technology. Thanks to these new inventions the RAF were able to send items autonomously across the largest RAF airbase in the UK, safely in compliance with their security standards. The Kar-go system demonstrated how the RAF could save time and cut carbon emissions, helping the RAF to reach their net zero targets by 2040.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Solving security
challenges

Operating on a military base meant that data needed to be carefully protected, so practices such as pre-scanning the base and transferring data outside the base would not be possible.

Equally, providing access to networks, offices and facilities on the base for the Academy of Robotics teams would have been a protracted and complex process.

Removing
pre-scanning

Redaction

Forgetting

In the AV space it is common practice to store data on the car and to back this up elsewhere (usually on a cloud-based system or at a command hub). To minimise any risks from transferring data outside the site, we used a new system we call “forgetting.” This meant that once the data had been used and the car had reached a certain checkpoint, it would ‘forget’ all the non-essential information that it had needed only for a moment, to be able to navigate up to that checkpoint.

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IMAGE GALLERY

QUOTES

“So we've been collaborating with the Academy of Robotics for eight months now, and it's been an incredibly enjoyable journey, working with them and partnering with them to ensure that we create a solution that meets the needs of the trials, but also gives us a pathway to future trials.

“So the next steps really are to look at how we can capitalise on the relationship we've built with the Academy of Robotics, but also look how we can add value in a future trial? And that may be to look at other vehicles and other areas that we're to provide value on an airfield.”

SQUADRON LEADER TONY SESTON
RAF ENGINEER AND ASTRA AMBASSADOR

“Last month, we saw a fantastic response from our teams, putting extra hours in and giving up leave to help the Afghan rescue missions. That’s the sort of work our aviators want to be able to focus on and in situations like this, every minute we save can save a life. This trial is part of a continued programme to take away the mundane tasks that cause added stress and inconvenience for our people, to help our highly-trained personnel to do the jobs they joined the RAF to do and to do them to the best of their ability.”

Group Captain Emily Flynn
Station Commander at RAF Brize Norton

“In the future, Kar-go could take larger equipment like the tyres behind me out to the airfield within an upscaled electric vehicle and deliver them to the engineers to fit onto the aircraft. Again, it doesn't have to stop there. It could be larger.”

Sergeant Lee Tomas
Astra Core Team - Astra Innovation