Operations Begin at Ft. Carson

On Wednesday September 16, 2020 the Perrone Robotics powered autonomous Polaris GEM shuttle began regular service at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs, CO. A launch event was held on Tuesday 9/15 where we heard from the base commander, Colonel Springer, and from Jim Allen of the Army research organization ERDC. Our transportation operations partner First Transit then conducted rides for attendees on a short demo course of about 1 mile where the shuttle handled stop signs, yield turns, traffic following, and pedestrian detection and avoidance.

This shuttle service provides a valuable service to new members of the base who are also new recruits to the Army. Once recruits make it through boot camp, they are assigned to different bases and different divisions for further training and incorporation into Army service. These new recruits typically do not have a vehicle and on a large base such as Ft. Carson, it’s not easy to get around to the Commissary, the Exchange, or the gym. The goal of the project is to offer rides to these service members and also evaluate how an autonomous shuttle is received by base staff, how it is viewed by the service members, and also how an electric shuttle compares to existing gasoline shuttles for power consumption and efficiency.

During each run, there are many detailed parameters collected such as average speed, duration of run, distance traveled, energy consumed, number of passengers, etc. In addition, Perrone Robotics is collecting a full set of sensor logs as well as its operational logs to provide a detailed view of how well the autonomous shuttle handled traffic, pedestrians, weather, etc. These data will be reviewed by ERDC and by collaboration partner University of Colorado at Boulder.

A larger launch event is expected in about 6 weeks where some initial findings will be released. As well, Perrone will deliver the 2nd autonomous Polaris GEM in a few weeks to complement the first shuttle now in operation.