Two small companies have partnered to create a relatively small two-box system designed as an early warning system for drivers of Marine Corps and Army off road vehicles to prevent rollovers, an executive from one of the firms said.
Archangel Systems, Inc. and the Fredericks Company had their Vehicle Protective Rollover System, which they call V-PRO, on display during the Modern Day Marine symposium at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., this week.
Bill Dillard, Archangel’s director of emerging technology, said the government said there have been more than 400 documented cases of rollovers in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he believes V-PRO could help curtail the problem.
The system consists of an inertia sensor, built by Archangel, which can detect vehicle speed and motion and predict future rollover risk levels by running the data through software algorithms. A display built by Fredericks will then alert the driver as the risk increases, beginning at one-second before a 40 percent chance of a rollover has been reached, Dillard said.
“Some systems alert when future rollover is imminent,” Dillard said. “In the current V-PRO version, the driver and crew are forewarned when future rollover risk is assessed at 40 percent or higher. This approach provides more time for corrective action by the driver.”
Dillard said that as the risk level increases, the alarm grows louder and it if were to reach a 90 percent possibility, it would get “pretty obnoxious.” He said V-PRO operates independently of the vehicle’s other systems and would only need a power source. He added, however, it could be optimally designed to be plugged into to the vehicles current speed to increase accuracy.
Archangel and Fredericks are actively shopping the technology with the three prime competitors for the Army and Marine Corps Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), Dillard said. AM General, Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Oshkosh [OSK] are the three competitors and are currently in the process of building their versions of the JLTVs under engineering and manufacturing development contracts issued in August.