Kratos Defense and Security Solutions Inc (KTOS)

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***Kratos Deploys the World's First Autonomous Vehicle Utilized in Live Operation on Public Roadways

4:00 pm ET September 18, 2017 (Globe Newswire) Print
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS), a leading National Security Solutions provider, announced today that Micro Systems, Inc., a part of its Unmanned Systems Division (USD), in partnership with Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Royal Truck and Equipment, and Colas Ltd, has deployed the World's First autonomous vehicle approved and supporting live roadway operation in Colorado (

). The Autonomous Impact Protection Vehicle (AIPV), also known as the Autonomous Truck Mounted Attenuator (ATMA), is a first-of-its kind work zone vehicle designed to advance safety for roadway maintenance crews. Customarily positioned behind road construction crews in order to protect workers from the traveling public, the AIPV/ATMA increases work zone safety by removing the driver from a truck actually designed as a mobile crash barrier.

"Just in the last four years, there have been 26 incidents where a member of the traveling public struck a CDOT impact protection vehicle -- that's almost seven per year," said Shailen Bhatt, CDOT Executive Director. "This is a dangerously high number when you consider that in some instances, a CDOT employee is sitting in the driver's seat of the vehicle that was hit. By using self-driving technology, we're able to take the driver out of harm's way while still effectively shielding roadside workers. Our partnership with Kratos proves that technology can take transportation safety to a new level and forever improve the way we work."

The autonomous technology was originally developed by Kratos to support Robotic and Autonomous System (RAS) objectives for the US Army and has been leveraged into this non-military commercial application. The system incorporates a Leader/Follower configuration utilizing a vehicle automation retrofit kit that enables the unmanned AIPV/ATMA to follow a human-driven leader vehicle mimicking position, speed, and heading. Retrofitting the vehicles with the Kratos automation kit allows the customer to use their existing fleet of vehicles providing a highly cost effective solution. In addition to the Colorado deployment of the AIPV/ATMA, Kratos has systems currently undergoing trials in the UK with Colas Ltd. According to the Federal Highway Administration, in work zones in 2015, there was a crash every 5.4 minutes, 70 crash-related injuries every day, and 12 crash-related fatalities every week, which makes the AIPV/ATMA a potentially game-changing solution for improving safety and efficiency in the work zone.

Kevin Ferguson, Sr. VP of Kratos' Micro Systems, Inc., said, "Kratos is focused on rapidly designing, demonstrating, and fielding the highest performance unmanned systems in the world, and we are very proud to be working with this important customer on this next generation roadway construction system."