Stratom selected by Marine Corps to develop Remote Expeditionary Autonomous Pioneer System (REAPr)

Stratom teams works on an autonomous solution
Stratom is a veteran owned business that designs and manufactures autonomous solutions to support US Military operations in the field. | Credit: Stratom

Stratom, a veteran-owned provider of autonomous ground vehicles and robotic systems for logistics and operational applications, announced it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research contract by the Marine Corps to develop the Remote Expeditionary Autonomous Pioneer (REAPr) System. 

“The Marine Corps’ emerging Pioneer unit is seeking a versatile uncrewed system with multimission capabilities that can act as a workforce multiplier for each unit while keeping Marines out of harm’s way,” said Mark Gordon, president of Stratom. “Leveraging our deep UGV and autonomous systems development expertise, as well as past experience collaborating with various U.S Armed Forces service branches, our proposed solution maximizes accessory compatibility and ease of use while balancing durability, transportability and cost. As a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, we’re proud to help support the Marines’ Pioneer effort.”

REAPr is an unmanned ground vehicle that considerably decreases the amount of equipment needed to do a wide variety of missions. Combining a highly capable off-road vehicle platform with a highly configurable universal attachment system and Stratom’s core Summit autonomy software, the REAPr solution automates mundane or hazardous tasks such as path and mine clearing, tool switching, monotonous driving via waypoint navigation, and basic tool use.

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Stratom’s REAPr will be intended to be rapidly deployable from a V-22 aircraft in order to give enormous value by transporting fuel, food, and ammunition to front-line soldiers while minimizing the risk to Marines undertaking such a mission. The REAPr System will be simple and straightforward to operate remotely for expeditionary operations. It will be highly adaptable and interoperable with a vast array of different and separate instruments.

“Leveraging our past experience with developing rugged ground vehicles for DOD applications, we will be able to rapidly develop a solution capable of performing multiple missions from a unique but standard platform,” said Jesse Weifenbach, Lead Vehicle Systems Engineer of Stratom. “With in-depth experience as a leader in autonomous systems development for general warfighting applications, we are looking forward to supporting the Marine Corps’ Pioneer mission with a state-of-the-art system that improves expeditionary operations.” 

The intent of this SBIR topic is to develop a system that integrates a broad variety of capabilities into a single system. According to the request for proposal, the system can “be configured as a ‘base’ and incorporate various attachments for each specific application,” “must be transportable by Marine Corps ground and air assets,” and should “require a minimum amount of operational input from personnel.”

For more information about how Stratom empowers customers to overcome their most difficult real-world challenges, visit stratom.com.

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Written by

Mike Oitzman

Mike Oitzman is Senior Editor of WTWH's Robotics Group, cohost of The Robot Report Podcast, and founder of the Mobile Robot Guide. Oitzman is a robotics industry veteran with 25-plus years of experience at various high-tech companies in the roles of marketing, sales and product management. He can be reached at moitzman@wtwhmedia.com.