Galil Motion Controllers for Remote Controlled Vehicles

Strategic Operations, Inc. (STOPS) in San Diego, California, specializes in creating Hyper-Realistic™ training environments for military, law enforcement, and homeland security purposes. They have provided this unique training to over 450,000 Marines, soldiers, and Coast Guard personnel in order to prepare them for the hostile environments they may face. STOPS focuses on providing the most realistic environments in which to train, including movie-industry special effects, actual military tactics, and props that can range from entire villages and buildings to live actors and realistic dummies.

Ballistic Unmanned Ground Vehicle (BUGV)

Adding to the realism of the environment is STOPS’s Ballistic Unmanned Ground Vehicle. This vehicle is used to train soldiers on how to respond to live-fire at vehicle check and entry points, for sniper training, and for dealing with vehicles that may have been weaponized into bombs.

Galil Motion Controllers

The steel-framed BUGV is completely unmanned and operated via a remote control device. The driving functionality of the BUGV is managed by a DMC-4080 8-axis Ethernet motion controller from Galil Motion Control. The controller also utilizes two Galil D3040 4-axis, 500 W drives with each capable of operating at voltages between 20 V and 80 V.

Of the 8-axes, three control the steering, shifting, and throttle actions. A fourth axis is used for additional steering requirements, while a fifth is used for controlling a machine gun that has been mounted inside the vehicle to fire blanks at trainees. The final three axes are utilized for testing and other features.

Galil Motion Controller Features

STOPS chose to utilize Galil components due to its extreme reliability, even under harsh conditions like weather fluctuations, dust, ammunition and explosives, and chemicals. The Tell Torque feature of the DMC-4080 was of particular interest to STOPS. This feature takes readings from the motor of the BUGV, determines the harshness of the terrain, and delivers these findings to the remote control “driver” to adjust the engine accordingly.

Additional features of the Galil components are the Homing Routine and Limits feature which allows for safe power-up and re-centering of the vehicle and wheels prior to each training session. The Galil programming language is also easy-to-use, allowing STOPS engineers to incorporate specific safety routings into the operating system.

Electromate proudly supplies Galil motion controllers like those used by STOPS in the unmanned vehicle. Contact us today for a quote.