Smart armored vehicles with NGVA capabilities

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity company, Real-Time Innovations (RTI), has announced that Plasan, has selected RTI Connext DDS as the connectivity framework for its smart armored vehicles. Plasan is currently expanding its fleet of over 32,000 vehicles around the world.

The company is leveraging RTI’s technology as they make the shift into the military and paramilitary space, becoming the first company to offer NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture (NGVA) capabilities in Israel, and one of the first companies in Europe, alongside a full range of connectivity solutions to their existing smart armored vehicle systems.

Plasan’s armored vehicles offer high-end protection and mission readiness in the defense and security fields while reducing operational costs. In the last six years, the company has been developing the technology and integration capabilities that enable their armored vehicles to be mission-ready, smart armored vehicles. These vehicles are built for secure, rapid vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) transactions, and can communicate with each other in the field – an industry-first enabling communality between these military vehicles systems.

In developing this technology, Plasan was the first company to offer NGVA capabilities and create NGVA-compliant intelligent armored vehicles for various use cases. NGVA is a standard for integrating subsystems on a military vehicle. It uses an open architecture approach to vehicle interfaces and protocol design based on the Data Distribution Service (DDS) connectivity standard for software interoperability. RTI’s experience and global recognition in the connectivity space played an integral role with the company’s implementation, aiding in the development of the intelligent integration platform that the company needed to provide commonality and interoperability between the various systems in each vehicle.

Plasan reportedly relies on RTI to manage the full scope of connectivity in the core framework of the company’s smart systems, creating a unique infrastructure that can seamlessly integrate with various systems using the NGVA specifications. It also has the capability to integrate any type of system or subsystem into a vehicle to make each component, as well as the vehicle, more intelligent. Connext DDS gives Plasan the ability to break out the different composition of the vehicles without being tied down to one operating system or a single hardware. It enables rapid and reliable information exchange, resulting in safer operations and functionality.

RTI’s software enables the company to improve vehicle reliability, reduce training time and quickly reconfigure systems for different roles in the NGVA-compliant systems. With RTI’s Connext Databus architecture, Plasan has the ability to faultlessly integrate the NGVA standard into their vehicles without downtime. This is due in part to the simplicity of integrating the DDS library into Plasan’s existing system libraries. Additionally, the company is able to implement NGVA compliance into older Plasan vehicles, which weren’t originally equipped to be interoperable, due to the ease of use and flexibility that Connext DDS provides.

Baruch Dilion, Head of the Vetronics and Integration Department at Plasan, stated: “The seamless connectivity provided by RTI Connext DDS allows us to successfully enable interoperable communications in our smart vehicle solutions, which is crucial in a mission-critical defense environment.

“By ensuring that our vehicles are NGVA compatible, we are now able to open the company up to new market opportunities across both the military and paramilitary sectors. As we pave the way for the industry, we are confident that Connext DDS will allow us to expand the global reach of our groundbreaking, industry-leading NGVA-compatible solutions.”

Chip Downing, Senior Director, Aerospace & Defense at RTI, added: “In any type of defense environment, maintaining the highest levels of performance and reliability when sharing data between systems is of the utmost importance. RTI has proven experience in intelligent transportation, autonomous systems and in meeting the demanding requirements of mission-critical systems in real-time, all while ensuring that security remains at the forefront.

“We are thrilled to work with global companies like Plasan who are leading the way for mission-critical innovation and producing first-of-its-kind technology solutions that are changing the face of the defense market. We look forward to continuing our work together to further advance these vehicles and increase interoperability across sectors.”

Looking forward, Plasan predicts autonomous systems will play a leading role in armored vehicles. The company has started working on vehicle power systems, using Connext DDS Micro for its smart power management solution to protect the vehicles.