News.

CLARKSBURG, MD – Robotic Research Autonomous Industries (RRAI) is pleased to announce that it has changed its name to  Forterra, solidifying its focus on ground-based autonomy innovation in the defense and commercial sectors. 

“Since our founding over 20 years ago, we have been focused on the deployment of groundbreaking autonomy systems,” Forterra CEO Josh Araujo said. “Our rebrand to Forterra represents who we are today, while reflecting our history and the mission that drives us. We exist to empower people and their missions — regardless of the environment.” 

Forterra’s focus on defense vehicles and off-road, on-property commercial trucks is unique. By avoiding the regulatory risks faced by robo taxi and on-highway driverless trucking firms, Forterra expects a quicker trajectory to profitable growth than its competitors.  

“Forterra’s approach, with defense as our priority, puts our AutoDrive® autonomy platform front and center in handling the hardest conditions,” Araujo added. “We are confident in the DoD’s focus in this area and our business model sets us apart from our competitors which gives us the financial stability to innovate and grow.” 

Since its founding in 2002, Forterra (formerly Robotic Research) has led the development and deployment of ground autonomy systems in defense. Forterra’s technology has been operated on four continents and in over10 countries. Forterra is the only company competing on all four DOD ground autonomy programs and the only firm currently producing driverless vehicles for the military. In fact, Forterra engineers helped DoD establish its driverless vehicle performance specifications. 

The company’s AutoDrive® autonomy platform works across different vehicle types and in complicated environments. Forterra is the only autonomy company that uses NDAA-compliant components and is optimized to meet the mission requirements of the most stringent customers, such as the US Military.  

“Crescent Cove has been extremely proud to support the RRAI/Forterra team over the past two years,” said Crescent Cove Founder and CIO Jun Hong Heng, an investor in the company. “The essence of Forterra’s rebrand is captured by its promise to deliver autonomous mobility in the most complex driving environments.” 

Forterra estimates that the total US defense market for ground autonomy will be worth over $4 billion by 2026. In 2023, Forterra booked four large contracts with the DoD, including the first production contract for self-driving systems in the US Military. 

The company’s success in rugged, off-road environments enabled them to deploy mature technology into the industrial markets. In 2023,Forterra won contracts to provide self-driving yard trucks to Truck Specialized Information Services (TSIS) at its Detroit freight facility and for driverless off-highway logging trucks with FPInnovations of Canada.  

While both projects are initially small, the numbers are expected to grow in coming years. Forterra estimates the total commercial market – logistics centers and drayage/private roads – at $23 billion total. Forterra is currently running pilot programs with several Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and is fully booked for 2024.  

About the New Name 

The name Forterra combines “for” as in “directed to” or“belonging to,” with “terra,” from Latin meaning “earth” or “solid ground.” In addition, its implied qualities include “forte” from Latin fortem or “strong” –an ability to withstand a great force or pressure. And RR – the double Rs pay homage to the company’s prior name – “Robotic Research” – and its 20+ year history. 

Alberto Lacaze, President and Chairman of the Board (left) and Josh Aurajo, CEO (right)
with Maryland Governor Wes Moore (center).

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RRAI Announces Strategic Leadership Transition in Pursuit of Autonomy Excellence

RRAI, a leading innovator in vehicle autonomy, announced a significant leadership transition to further propel the company's strategic growth plans and maintain its position as a leader in the field. Alberto Lacaze, Founder, has selected Josh Araujo, the current COO, to assume the position of CEO.

With over 20 years of experience spanning military, financial and operational leadership roles, Josh Araujo brings a wealth of expertise to his new role. A former Marine, Josh embodies the defense-first focus, enthusiasm for the mission, and a keen focus on organizational execution to lead RRAI.

Alberto Lacaze expressed his enthusiasm for the selection, stating: "This fully aligns with our strategic growth plans and ensures our continued pursuit of excellence in vehicle autonomy. Since founding our company, we've achieved remarkable success, and I am eager to continue that journey with this path forward. With Josh as CEO and a stellar leadership team in place, supported by the unwavering commitment and capabilities of our entire organization, I am confident in our ability to reach new heights and maintain our position as autonomy leaders."

Incoming CEO Josh Araujo shared his vision for the future, stating, "I’m honored and excited to step into the CEO role and I’m committed to continuing to support our engineers and employees as they deliver groundbreaking autonomy solutions to our customers. RRAI’s mission to deliver autonomous mobility in the most rugged environments in support of our soldiers and Marines is near and dear to me and is at the core of what drives us as a company."

This transition is a pivotal step in RRAI's long-term succession plan, designed to uphold the company's commitment to being at the forefront of vehicle autonomy by ensuring continuity in the company's culture of excellence, strengthening delivery of Department of Defense programs such as Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV), Ground Expeditionary Autonomous Retrofit System (GEARS), and Remotely Operated Ground Unit for Expeditionary Fires (ROGUE Fires), and by establishing strong partnerships on the commercial side as has been demonstrated with customers like TSIS specialized parking services and FPInnovations.

Robotic Research Autonomous Industries (RRAI) specializes in autonomy systems for complex driving environments, catering to both defense and commercial industries. RRAI is led by industry pioneers who played integral roles in developing the concepts and definitions of modern autonomy. The company has forged enduring partnerships with the Defense Department and prominent commercial Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) representing heavy industry, logistics, and distribution sectors.

RRAI is proud to support the US Army's Robotic Combat Vehicle "RCV" team by bringing autonomy to the forefront of modern formations. While the original design for the Government’s autonomy efforts centered around teleoperation and remote operation, anyone who has ever done a road-trip across windy and undulating terrain can tell you operating a gaming device from the backseat of a moving vehicle is a recipe for a lost lunch. That’s why we are passionate about bringing reliable and operator-centric autonomy to robotic platforms.

Autonomous systems are coming to every conflict, in all domains. Ground combat systems present a preponderance of Western force's arsenals and are heavily reliant on humans for everything from indirect fires to logistics. RRAI and the commercial industry are pushing the boundaries of delivering autonomy to these systems by leveraging private funding to develop, test, and harden “tomorrow’s technologies” (i.e., things in the realm of science and technology programs) for warfighters today.

Within the Army, the RCV is the first of a fleet of new combat vehicles which will not only operate in these conflicts but also present the most efficient means of deterring major wars. Soldiers' lives in Ukraine and in future conflicts can be preserved and protected by augmenting formations with robotic partners that can project the threat of force. Future programs using the robotic concept need to overcome the long times that typically exist between concept development, materiel design, production, and the ultimate deployment. Put simply, rapid innovation is difficult, but not impossible.

The base platform design for RCV is a novel uncrewed ground vehicle equipped with an integrated drive-by-wire system.  Designed to host modular payloads, the RCV is a multi-role sensing and weapons platform which could service mechanized and cavalry formations. The Department's approach – pairing the best of vehicle hardware systems with the best of autonomy hardware and software – enables the program to address emerging threats and requirements without taking the design back to a “blank sheet” or initial design. More importantly, it is a phenomenal solution to rapid innovation, development, and fielding.

RRAI’s AutoDrive^® is form-fitted to the base platform and represents the full capabilities of our dual-use approach to autonomy. We recognize that it can’t take a PhD to operate the system, yet needs to be capable of operating in complex environments. Soldiers and operators need to trust, both deeply and implicitly, that their robotic teammate will carry out its portion of the mission without consuming their mental shelf-space with supervision and control. We do this by building autonomy to meet the harsh conditions of non-pristine roadways. Often, the commercial industry hears that the commercial industry does not build to the requirements of the DOD. However, RRAI has been building these systems for decades and we see the same problem sets in both defense and commercial applications. Thus we built a platform from the ground up to address both.

RRAI is excited to continue work with the RCV team on Phase II of the Ground Vehicle Autonomy Pathways program where we will continue demonstrations of AutoDrive^® against DOD’s and Defense Innovation Unit’s stringent design and performance requirements. We’re confident that our position puts us at the front of software development for the program both in terms of funding and pace to ultimately deliver production-ready level software in time to meet fielding requirements in 2027.

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Achieving Milestones: Autonomous Military Convoy Demonstrations in Kuwait

By Britten Warner, Mission Operations Lead, RRAI

Recently, RRAI (Robotic Research Autonomous Industries) had the honor of demonstrating our autonomous capabilities for high-ranking US and Kuwaiti military officials.  Over a three-week period, on both military and civilian roads, the success of these demonstrations highlighted the rapid progress and utility of autonomous vehicle technology for military operations for today, not tomorrow.

As part of the demonstration, RRAI teammates trained new soldiers on how to use our ATVS system.  It only took these soldiers two weeks to become operators for our autonomous convoys of PLS trucks.  And within a week later, the operators successfully conducted five separate demonstrations for three generals.

A demonstration for Lieutenant General Pat Frank, the commanding general for US Army Central Command, even included him serving as the safety driver for one of the autonomous PLSs.  

In addition, the demonstrations included high ranking Kuwaiti military officials testing the autonomous capabilities, reported on by the Kuwaiti media.

The demonstrations offered several key takeaways beginning with realizing that even in the stage of development, the autonomous capability enables an operational utility to reduce the number of people in vehicles; meaning requiring less people to do more right now.  In addition, the performance of the autonomous PLS trucks on civilian roads reiterated the need to integrate civilian road space behaviors while also underscoring the need for military domains to be integrated within the civilian space.

The positive reactions of high-ranking officials and soldiers affirm the project's viability, highlighting its potential to reduce manpower, enhance operational efficiency, and contribute to safer military operations on the road.

The success of this project offers a glimpse into the future of military convoy operations. As the technology continues to evolve, the lessons learned from these demonstrations will undoubtedly pave the way for more seamless integration into both military and civilian spaces. The project has proven that while challenges remain, the benefits are immense.

Robotic Research Takes Top Honors at 2022 ACG Awards

Autonomous driving technology leader recognized by the National Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) for the Company’s $228M Series A Equity Raise

CLARKSBURG, Md. (June 14, 2022) – Robotic Research, a global leader in autonomous driving technology, was honored at this year’s Association for Corporate Growth Awards ceremony, a recognition of the company’s extraordinary success in its recent $228M Series A Equity Raise––the first outside capital the company has raised in it’s nearly 20-yearhistory.

“We are extremely honored to be recognized by ACG. Our team’s hard work and dedicationin recent years has driven us towards tremendous success––I couldn’t be more proud of the work we do,” said Alberto Lacaze, chair & CEO, Robotic Research. “This funding round––the first in our history––has enabled us to meet growing customer demand and expand our commercial efforts. We would also like to thank UBS for serving as our financial advisor, and our investors, without whom this investment would not have been possible.”

The Corporate Growth Awards commemorate the previous year’s most impressive deals and highlight the dealmakers, investors, and corporate leaders that make the region a hotbed for corporate growth and deal activity. Robotic Research is honored to receive an award following our recent success and look forward to an exciting future ahead in the autonomous driving industry.

Robotic Research has successfully deployed autonomous and robotics solutions on roadways around the globe as well as in the industry’s harshest, unstructured environments. The company’s vehicle-agnostic autonomy kit, AutoDrive®, has already been integrated in a variety of vehicles including North America’s first automated heavy-duty transit bus, Class 8 trucks, and yard trucks. AutoDrive® can be used on-road, off-road, or in the yard, making it uniquely suited to provide a 360° autonomous driving solution that spans a variety of complex operational design domains (ODDs).

About Robotic Research

Robotic Research is a global technology company specializing in autonomy and platooning solutions for commercial and defense customers. Founded in 2002, the Company has been a trusted technology partner to the public and private sector for nearly twenty years. From people to platforms, at home or overseas, Robotic Research is driven to make the way you move smarter, safer, and more efficient. To learn more about Robotic Research, visit www.roboticresearch.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

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Media Contact:
Don Lefeve
press@rr.ai

Insider considered nominations from across the AV industry from a list of nearly 100 people and weighed each nominee's experience, importance to their company, and contributions to the overall self-driving-vehicle industry. Insider selected those who appear to be driving their companies and the industry forward as it embarks on the next wave of self-driving-vehicle development.

Included on their list was Anne Schneider, vice president of autonomous trucking at RRAI and Robotic Research. Anne is leading our push into the commercial space including leading the company's autonomous trucking solutions such as its vehicle agnostic, full-stack autonomy kit that works for both on- and off-highway environments.

Congratulations Anne!

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