Military Wants an Arctic Knight Rider

The U.S. military must be suffering massive Knight Rider nostalgia. First it signed a deal to develop an autonomous car to speed through minefields and destroy homemade bombs. Now it's interested in another kind of KITT: this one an all-terrain vehicle for the arctic tundra.

That's the basic idea behind a military proposal that's barely off the ground called, adorably, KODIAK. The military wants a rugged vehicle capable of operating in sub-zero conditions. Driver strictly optional.

Northern Command, the young and relatively obscure military command responsible for the North American continent, wants information on 'existing semi-autonomous ground vehicles and/or modification of commercial all terrain vehicles that can operate as manned (two person) or unmanned mode of transportation,' according to a bulletin it quietly released last week. 'The platform must be commercial to facilitate ease of obtaining parts and repair in austere locations supported primarily by local commercial vendors.'

How austere? Places with 'minimal vegetation,' prone to 'deep snow,' and that can dip to '-50 degrees' Fahrenheit but that can hit the 90s in summertime. (So, Canada?)

The semi-autonomous KODIAK might not be a mere vehicle. Northern Command wants it to carry a sensor payload, though it's unclear what kind of surveillance an ATV is really optimized to collect. It's possible that the sensors are just to guide the autonomy. The Northern Command request for information about the feasibility of KODIAK describes 'threat assessment; persistent stare [and] mobile surveillance' as the benefits of military robots. An ATV is far from an obvious choice for any of that.

But then comes the challenge of tricking out the ATV for an unmanned mode. Theoretically, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. The Army has small, tracked vehicles that it controls remotely, as well as a six-wheeled robotic mule.

It's unclear if Northern Command can get its unlikely KITT into production. (If it can, the bullet says the command wants it fielded within two years.) But if it runs into problems with making the thing autonomous, it might consult with David Bruemmer's 5D Robotics in California. Bruemmer's adaptive vehicular-autonomy sensors, known as a 'Behavior Engine,' helped pioneer military Knight Rider cars. It might be a matter of time before KITT goes off-road into the snow.