Operational Availability: Maintaining Control When It Matters Most
NX NextMotion in a real-world vehicle context: The drive-by-wire control layer is designed to ensure that safety-critical control functions remain available even after defined faults occur. Photo: Arnold NextG
Why the availability of safety-critical vehicle functions is essential in the defence sector – and how the Arnold NextG team is bringing decades of Drive-by-Wire experience into the next generation of technology.
A vehicle that comes to a safe stop following a technical failure is not necessarily still operational. This distinction can be critical, particularly for military platforms operating in manned, teleoperated or unmanned modes.
The key question is therefore: Which vehicle functions remain available after a failure – and under what conditions?
This is where Operational Availability comes into play.
Fault Tolerance Instead of Immediate Loss of Functionality
With NX NextMotion, Arnold NextG has developed a platform-independent Drive-by-Wire architecture that combines safety-critical motion control functions with a consistently redundant system design.
The system is designed to be fully fail-operational: Following the single-point failures accounted for in the system design, steering, braking and other safety-critical control functions remain fully available within their specified operating limits.
A practical example: If a redundant steering path fails in an unmanned vehicle, NX NextMotion detects and isolates the fault. Steering functionality can continue through the remaining intact path without any immediate loss of performance – provided that the overall vehicle integration meets the relevant system requirements.
Defined response strategies are in place for more complex combinations of failures. Which functions remain available and how the vehicle is brought into a controlled, predefined state depend on the specific system design.
The key is not to eliminate every possible failure, but to manage its impact on vehicle control in a controlled and predictable manner.
Decades of Experience Within Our Team
The Arnold NextG team brings together more than 25 years of experience in the development, integration and practical application of safety-critical Drive-by-Wire technologies.
This expertise is built on numerous vehicle projects and extensive real-world experience with Drive-by-Wire systems that have collectively covered more than 2.5 billion accident-free kilometres across multiple system generations.
The insights gained from this experience directly contribute to the development of NX NextMotion. They shape our understanding of redundancy, fault management and the reliable interaction of safety-critical components under real-world operating conditions.
In this way, our team combines decades of practical experience with a modern system architecture designed to meet the requirements of future vehicle platforms.
One Architecture for Different Defence Platforms
Military vehicles are increasingly being equipped with teleoperation and automated functions. At the same time, their technical specifications and operational requirements vary considerably.
NX NextMotion provides a common Drive-by-Wire foundation that can be adapted to different vehicle types and operating modes.
For OEMs and system integrators, this means access to an established, safety-oriented technology architecture, with integration and validation tailored to the specific requirements of each platform.
This capability is particularly important for unmanned applications: It is not only the ability to reach a safe state, but also the controlled availability of vehicle functions that can determine whether a mission can continue.
This principle forms an important technical foundation for Mission Continuity – the ability to maintain controlled operation of a platform within its remaining capabilities following defined failure events, or to transition it into a predefined state.
Experience Reflected in the Technology
Developing safety-critical vehicle control systems requires a deep understanding of the entire system. What matters is not simply the performance of an individual control unit, but the reliable interaction between electronics, software, sensors, actuators and the vehicle itself.
Our experienced development team brings this system-level expertise to NX NextMotion – from safety architecture and technical implementation through to integration into different vehicle platforms.
For vehicle manufacturers and system integrators, this means they can build on an established technology architecture and our team's decades of practical experience, rather than having to solve the fundamental challenges of safety-critical motion control entirely from scratch.
Because what matters is not simply whether a system detects a failure. What matters is how much control remains afterwards.
WE CONTROL WHAT MOVES.
Source / Technical Classification
ATZheavy duty 02/2026, Technical Article
“Three Control Sources, One Architecture—A Fail-Operational Drive-by-Wire Platform for Integrated Control of Autonomy, Teleoperation, and Driver Intervention.” Read article
