The Autonomous Tactical Air Ground System(ATLAS) is a multidisciplinary project focusing on the challenges for the Raytheon Autonomous Vehicle Competition. The goal is to develop a system consisting of an autonomous obstacle-avoidance Unmanned Ground Vehicle(UGV) and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) for a simulated GPS-denied environment. The UAV is responsible for navigating autonomously on a predefined turf field, identifying destination ArUco marker, and sending direction heading. The UGV will receive heading information and navigate terrain autonomously, avoiding obstacles(leveraging BrainChip neuromorphic processor), and housing the UAV safely before arriving at the destination.

“Operation Touchdown,” the theme of Raytheon’s Autonomous Vehicle Competition for the 2025-26 academic year, addresses key technical challenges, including precise navigation in a GPS-denied environment, real-time obstacle detection, and low-latency communication, all completely autonomous without human intervention.