Maryland based Robotic Research, a specialist in truck platooning and autonomous long wheel based vehicles, has added Retrotraverse to its autonomous trucking technology. Retrotraverse is the autonomous reversing of vehicles with trailers. The company is hailing this as a major breakthrough in autonomous trucking.

The new functionality has been added to the company’s AutoDrive-M autonomy platform, which equips the US Army’s Palettized Load System (PLS) logistics trucks. The company demonstrated Retrotraverse capabilities with three of the army’s PLS trucks, each towing trailers.

The Retrotraverse feature allows a platoon of heavy-duty trucks with trailers to autonomously reverse. According to Robotic Research, its rival autonomous truck providers are demonstrating platooning in benign conditions, where the weather is ideal and road surfaces are smooth and marked. By contrast, the company says, it has focused on ‘edge cases’, such as poor weather, dust and off-road conditions, to ensure a robust autonomous system that is necessary for operating in all conditions and during mission-critical operations for the military. If a platoon drives into a dead end, or similar edge case where it cannot make a U-turn, the platoon of vehicles with trailers needs to be able to reverse out of the situation. The company says that Retrotraverse has the capabilities to make this happen.

“This is a major step forward for our company and has broad application both in autonomy and platooning. The capability solves the potentially life-threatening problem of an autonomous platoon of military vehicles being unable to navigate out of a dangerous situation,” said Alberto Lacaze, president of Robotic Research. “This automated platooning capability will ultimately extend the reach of soldiers without putting them in harm’s way.”

“Anyone who has backed up a truck with a trailer knows how difficult it is to navigate,” said Joe Putney, director of commercial systems at Robotic Research. “The autonomous Retrotraverse feature was able to reverse a truck and trailer faster than even our most skilled drivers. This feature is not just lifesaving, it’s time-saving, and it has the ability to reduce one of the greatest pains truck drivers have.”

In 2018, Robotic Research was awarded a three-year, $49.7 million contract by the US Army to provide its autonomy kit for large convoy re-supply vehicles. To date, Robotic Research has delivered nearly 100 unmanned platooning trucks.