General
It’s Official – TORC’s New Address
After a long week of packing, moving, painting, network & server upgrades and installations, new security badges, relocating our electronics lab, the hanging of many whiteboards and a pizza party for our departing intern Alex, TORC is officially in working order and back in the swing of things in our new location…just upstairs from our previous one.
Update your address books!
TORC is now located in Suite 2050. Full mailing address is:
TORC Technologies
2200 Kraft Drive
Suite 2050
Blacksburg, VA 24060
Pictures to follow for those who want a sneak peek inside the new facility.
TORC Provides Unmanned Industry with Integration-Ready Robotic Ground Vehicle
ByWire XGV™ Experimental Ground Vehicle Platform Provides Jump Start for Autonomous Research and Development
BLACKSBURG, VA (Dec. 4, 2009) – TORC Technologies, a leading developer of robotic technologies for unmanned and autonomous vehicles, is offering unmanned systems researchers, developers and integrators in the ground vehicle market a faster way to develop and test new technologies.
TORC’s ByWire XGV™ is a JAUS interoperable, drive-by-wire controlled ground vehicle platform which utilizes the Ford Escape Hybrid as the base vehicle. The XGV comes with built-in safety components and an optional onboard power management system. This off-the-shelf, integration-ready platform has been purchased by various universities and robotics companies to have on hand for rapid integration and testing of their autonomous technologies. The platform design is based on TORC’s success as a finalist in the DARPA Urban Challenge and has been proven during thousands of hours of development, testing and operation.
ByWire XGV makes it possible to bypass the drive-by-wire conversion and jump right into the integration phase of more advanced unmanned technologies. By allowing engineering teams to remain focused on higher level technology development, the XGV eliminates the need to spend time, money and resource commitments reinventing an already proven system.
“To develop the next level of unmanned ground vehicle technologies, researchers need a reliable, cost-effective drive-by-wire platform from which they can build upon,” says Andrew Culhane, TORC’s Business Development Manager. “In the full-sized unmanned ground vehicle market this is especially important since large amounts of time and money can be sunk into developing an in-house solution that may be pulling resources away from working on the core technology under development.
“The ByWire XGV is a direct solution to the ‘base platform problem’ experienced by so many in the unmanned systems community. As a rapid go-to-market platform with a great deal of flexibility in its application, the XGV is ready to integrate higher level technologies.”
ByWire XGV focuses on reliability, safety, cost-effectiveness and performance. The conversion package includes three core areas: drive-by-wire (ability for a computer to perform both closed-loop and open-loop control of the vehicle), safety (a fail-safe emergency stop system) and power (set of flexible options for supplying power to any auxiliary equipment).
ByWire XGV utilizes the hybrid Escape’s proven vehicle technologies, tapping into electronic controls, available battery power, and all wheel drive for on-road/off-road ruggedness and flexibility of application. Controlled through a unified Ethernet interface, the drive-by-wire conversion is seamlessly integrated with the vehicle’s factory electronics, providing electronic control of the steering, throttle, shifter, braking and signals. In addition, information such as vehicle speed, warnings and errors can be monitored.
The XGV includes an integrated SafeStop™, TORC’s wireless emergency stop system, providing temporary pause and emergency shutdown functionality. Manual stop buttons are mounted inside and outside of the vehicle for additional safety. A key benefit of the XGV is the availability of onboard DC and AC power, eliminating the need for adding additional power sources to the system. The optional PowerHub™ conditioning and distribution modules allow for use of up to 6 kW of managed power, which is configurable over Ethernet through a web browser.
“The demand for unmanned ground vehicles capable of removing humans from the dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs of the world continually increases as the effectiveness of unmanned systems improve,” Culhane says. “To meet this growing demand, research and development efforts have increased to build up critical technology.”
Examples of such critical areas include sensor range and effectiveness, motion planning techniques in dynamic and unpredictable environments, behavioral architectures, and unobtrusive yet powerful human-computer interfaces. Other important challenges facing unmanned system developers include lowering cost while improving reliability and robustness.
“Achieving all these goals is necessary to boost adoption rates of unmanned vehicles by government and commercial markets,” Culhane says. “Too often these goals are not achieved, however, due to the unavailability of a reliable, cost-effective, and flexible base platform. Too much time and money is put into solving a problem that is not associated with the actual technology under development. The XGV meets this need for the unmanned ground vehicle community.”
To learn more about ByWireXGV, including video demonstrations, please visit www.ByWireXGV.com.
ABOUT TORC TECHNOLOGIES
TORC is a leading robotics engineering and product development company focusing on unmanned and autonomous vehicle systems. The company commercializes intelligent robotic technologies into modular, interoperable, off-the-shelf products that enable customers to rapidly integrate and deploy unmanned solutions. To learn more, visit www.torctech.com.
TORC CEO Michael Fleming Named to Blue Ridge Business Journal’s 20 Under 40
TORC Technologies would like to congratulate CEO Michael Fleming for being nominated to the Blue Ridge Business Journal’s “20 Under 40,” a recognition of young business leaders and those contributing to the region’s economic development.
Fleming has been a visionary from day one, leading TORC from start-up to industry leader. Fleming actually declined the nomination last year because he did not want to be recognized individually for the company’s success. So as TORC thanks Fleming for his leadership, he thanks the rest of the team at TORC for their hard work, dedication and continued efforts to carry out the mission of becoming a leading enabler for organizations deploying robotic solutions.
TORC Technologies Releases the JAUS Toolkit for NI LabVIEW to Simplify JAUS Standards Based Development for Unmanned Systems
JAUS Toolkit for NI LabVIEW Accelerates Interoperability of Unmanned Systems
Blacksburg, VA – August 4, 2009 - TORC Technologies (www.torctech.com) has announced the release of its highly anticipated JAUS Toolkit™ for National Instruments LabVIEW graphical system design software to provide a simplified approach to JAUS (Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems) development for interoperable unmanned systems.
In 2000, the United States Senate mandated that one third of all military vehicles be unmanned by the year 2015. Foreseeing the problems of various proprietary systems being incompatible with each other, the groundwork was laid for JAUS, a standard for communications between elements of unmanned systems. In order to achieve the congressional mandate and the military’s goal, the shift from legacy and proprietary development to JAUS-interoperability is inevitable and companies will need to adopt JAUS standards-based development in order to service this growing market.
The JAUS Toolkit for NI LabVIEW hopes to accelerate the widespread adoption of the JAUS standards in both military and commercial markets by significantly reducing the risks and barriers to developing JAUS compliant systems and payloads. Capitalizing on the intuitive graphical programming environment of LabVIEW, the Toolkit extends the many benefits of LabVIEW development into the field of JAUS-interoperable robotics, allowing developers to leverage prepackaged JAUS modules and tools for implementing new or experimental messages and services.
The release of the Toolkit has been a long time coming. TORC has been a supporter and advocate of JAUS for many years, involved in both the development and application of the evolving JAUS standards. TORC has also pioneered the use of LabVIEW in developing JAUS-interoperable unmanned systems. Michael Fleming, CEO of TORC, states, “It’s exciting to finally offer the first and only JAUS software development kit for LabVIEW, a tool which our engineering team uses daily. We’ve packaged TORC’s expertise in JAUS with the benefits of LabVIEW graphical programming, allowing us to simplify complex JAUS protocols into drag-and-drop components. The Toolkit enables new developers to rapidly achieve JAUS-interoperability.”
TORC utilized an earlier version of the JAUS Toolkit in its success as the lead software developer for DARPA Urban Challenge finalist Team VictorTango. Working with Virginia Tech, the team developed the only JAUS-interoperable autonomous vehicle to successfully complete the race. It has since used iterations of the JAUS Toolkit on various projects ranging from internal product development to deployments for government and commercial clients.
“At National Instruments, we are continuously amazed by the many innovative ways people use LabVIEW to design and control revolutionary applications, including breakthroughs in the field of robotics,” said Dr. James Truchard, president, CEO and cofounder of National Instruments. “The advancements TORC brings to unmanned systems technology with this JAUS Toolkit for LabVIEW not only help to illustrate the inherent power and flexibility of LabVIEW graphical system design for robotics, but also enhance the nature of autonomous control in general, and we’re proud to be a part of that.”
TORC will showcase the JAUS Toolkit in the Robotics Pavilion at National Instruments NIWeek in Austin, Texas, August 4th-6th and at AUVSI’s (Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International) Unmanned Systems North America 2009 in booth #126 in Washington, D.C. August 11th-13th. Visitors are encouraged to participate in the “JAUS Toolkit Challenge” for a chance to win a Flip Mino™ camcorder. For more information on the JAUS Toolkit, stop by at one of the events or visit us online at http://www.jaustoolkit.com/ to register for an evaluation version of the software.
About TORC Technologies
TORC is a robotics engineering and product development company focused on unmanned and autonomous vehicle systems. TORC is automating dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks by commercializing intelligent robotic technologies into modular, interoperable, off-the-shelf products that enable customers to rapidly integrate and deploy robotic solutions. To learn more, visit www.torctech.com
About National Instruments
National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 30,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 5,000 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 10 years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company’s investor relations department by calling (512) 683-5090, e-mailing nati@ni.com or visiting www.ni.com/nati.
LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com, and NIWeek are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.
Sales Contact:
Andrew Culhane, Business Development Manager
TORC Technologies
540-443-9262 x 4251
http://www.torctech.com
Media Contact:
David Cutter, Marketing Manager
TORC Technologies
540-443-9262 x 4256
http://www.torctech.com
TORC’s ByWire XGV Tested at 102 Miles per Hour Under Drive-By-Wire Control
TORC Technologies Successfully Operates its Commercially Available Drive-By-Wire Platform in Excess of 100 Miles per Hour While in Computer Control
Blacksburg, VA – February 9, 2009 – TORC Technologies (www.torctech.com) reports that its ByWire XGV™, drive-by-wire converted Hybrid Escape platform, was successfully operated at speeds of up to 102 miles per hour in January of 2009. The tests were run on the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s “Smart Road,” a 2.2 mile road closed to outside traffic and pedestrians. The ByWire XGV provides unmanned system developers, researchers, and integrators with a scalable, computer controlled ground vehicle platform with integrated SafeStop™ safety and PowerHub™ power management systems.
Ready for the addition of an autonomous navigation system, the ByWire XGV conversion is tightly integrated to the existing vehicle systems. Controlled through a single interface using JAUS (Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems) or other proprietary standard over Ethernet, the steering, throttle, shifter, braking, and signals can all be controlled electronically. The safety systems on the XGV are centered around the TORC SafeStop, an off-the-shelf wireless emergency stop system, which provides up to a six mile line-of-sight range and allows for both disable and pause-vehicle states. An internally mounted emergency stop button, easily accessible from both front seats, and two optional externally mounted emergency stop buttons provide for additional safety.
A key benefit of the XGV is the availability of onboard electric power, which prevents the need for adding additional sources of power. TORC’s PowerHub power conditioning and distribution options allow for use of up to 2 kW of managed power, configurable over Ethernet through a web browser.
“The XGV is another product that TORC has developed based on needs from the DARPA Grand Challenges and other robotic programs from a variety of government groups and industry sectors. We see cutting edge robotic organizations spending too many resources reinventing drive-by-wire, safety, and power details rather than focusing on the higher level perception, planning, and control issues. The XGV allows organizations to leverage our experience solving the ‘Base Platform’ problem,” states Michael Fleming, CEO of TORC. “We are excited to demonstrate the XGV at closed-loop control at speed at over 100 miles per hour.”
The ByWire XGV uses multiple embedded modules to convert the stock vehicle to by-wire control. At the heart of this system is the National Instruments CompactRIO (cRIO) real-time system. The cRIO handles closed-loop control of the steering, throttling, and braking, as well as shifting, and lighting commands and feedback. Furthermore, the National Instruments cRIO provides the user access to the XGV system through a unified input over Ethernet.
“National Instruments is excited about TORC Technology’s’ ability to leverage LabVIEW and NI CompactRIO for leading autonomous vehicle design and deployment. TORC has been able to create unique offerings in the market through drive-by-wire technology,” states Shelley Gretlein, Robotics Business Development Manager at National Instruments.
A number of other performance tests were also completed in addition to the high speed runs. An operator was able to safely change lanes at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour, and the ByWire XGV was also able to slalom between two lanes at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. Both tests demonstrate the quick response time of the drive-by-wire conversion, and the accuracy at which desired commands can be achieved.
The ByWire XGV is currently available for purchase through TORC Technologies. The clean installation, intuitive user interface, and rapid conversion make the XGV ideal for unmanned system developers, system integrators and research universities. See the ByWire XGV in action, reaching 102 mph, in the online video at www.ByWireXGV.com.
About TORC Technologies
TORC is automating dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks by commercializing intelligent robotic technologies into interoperable off-the-shelf products, providing the essential building blocks for rapidly enabling autonomy on virtually any platform. TORC’s product line offers an integrated set of functionalities necessary for implementing varying levels of unmanned and autonomous operation that can increase your speed to market while reducing risks and development costs.
Sales Contact:
Andrew Culhane, Sales Engineer
TORC Technologies
540-443-9262 x 4251
http://www.torctech.com
Media Contact:
David Cutter, Marketing Manager
TORC Technologies
540-443-9262 x 4256
http://www.torctech.com