 Army researchers recently performed the first fully-autonomous test on an unmanned ground vehicle test bed at the Army Research Laboratory's Robotics Research Collaboration Campus. The 200-acre campus is located at Grace's Quarters, a peninsula just outside of Baltimore, Maryland that has a long history as a military testing ground. Researchers used these tests to prove performance of the ARL autonomy stack, which is the Research Laboratory's software framework and collection of algorithms that define system intelligence and that aid in the system's ability to perform mission-specific tasks in a military operation. Those tasks include long-distance autonomous navigation and communication. These tests were designed to capture sensory data from real-world field conditions like fallen branches, large rocks, loose biomass, dense shrubbery and bodies of water, all of which can present challenging problems for robots operating in natural, unstructured environments. Historically, Army researchers relied on computer-based modeling and simulation to perform qualitative checks on functionality of the ARL autonomy stack. Researchers say tests in natural environments like this are expected to help the Army identify how the unmanned ground vehicles respond in a real setting as terrain increases from challenging to highly complex. They expect the natural environment to provide an ideal proving ground for testing out the latest collaboratively developed autonomy algorithms.