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Our team exhibited Vegvisir at IDEX 2023 from the 20th to 24th February, where our mixed reality based situational awareness system was integrated onto the Milrem Robotics’ Type-X Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV), presented at the EDGE Group stand. Following the system's successful first field test, this was our next major milestone, as we revealed the Mixed Reality UI-view for armored vehicle drivers.
Being one of the largest defense exhibitions in the world, IDEX was the perfect place to meet up with our existing partners and form new relationships. We set up the Vegvisir live system which went through the extensive field tests earlier in December at the end of 2022. The demand to experience the Situational Awareness System and hear about the field test feedback was high and the live system was constantly in demo.
What generated the most interest among OEM’s and end-users was the new UI-view we have developed as the driver solution. Combining the ultra low latency 360-degrees video feed with additional data layers we have created the Mixed Reality view to improve armored vehicle crews’ situational awareness.
The new UI has several built-in features that will make the driver more effective and reduce the load on the crew members. This is just the first step of the development roadmap and custom solutions for the gunner and commander are coming up. In this version the Vegvisir mixed reality situational awareness system enabled the driver to know the position of the turret, location of the vehicle and heading in all views and zoom levels. This is useful to report location or points of interest in the field of view. Also, it is easy to coordinate information among the crew of the vehicle or over the radio.
Secondly, with this solution, the driver had virtual overlays of friendly and enemy information that were positioned on top of live video feed. This enables supreme situational awareness because the driver can instantly see battlefield management system reported friendly and enemy locations while driving.
On top of decision making support and situational awareness enhancement, the system provided information about the platform itself. The driver could see driving aid lines, notifications and state of different functions. Vegvisir demonstrated the ability to extract information from vehicle information systems or other interfaces.
This was just a short glimpse into the functionalities that are implemented. Following IDEX 2023 we can conclude that the development of Vegvisir is going in the right direction, as end users see clear value in improving situational awareness. Our newly developed UI-view generated a lot of demand, as it shows clear unique value on the market. There is still more end-user centric testing and development ongoing and more news will follow soon.
