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[Studies in Computational Intelligence 481] Artur Babiarz, Robert Bieda, Karol Jędrasiak, Aleksander Nawrat (auth.), Aleksander Nawrat, Zygmunt Kuś (eds.) - Vision Based Systemsfor UAV Applications (2013, Sprin

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296 T. Czapla and J. Wrona<br />

The front section conta<strong>in</strong>ed explosives, middle section eng<strong>in</strong>es and propulsion<br />

system, rear one cable drum. First versions of the vehicle were equipped with<br />

electric motors, later were replaced (SdKfz. 303) with <strong>in</strong>ternal combustion eng<strong>in</strong>e.<br />

High manufactur<strong>in</strong>g cost, low armor protection, high control-cable vulnerability<br />

and low top speed (11.5 km/h) caused that the vehicle was not used for destroy<strong>in</strong>g<br />

tanks as it was orig<strong>in</strong>ally <strong>in</strong>tended to (Skotnicki M.). That is why it is very important<br />

to determ<strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong> the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of the design<strong>in</strong>g process the Concept of Operations<br />

(CONOPS) with the requirements that should fulfill the system.<br />

In The Soviet Army unmanned ground platforms were build bas<strong>in</strong>g on modified<br />

T-26 tanks. Radio controlled tanks were renamed to TT-26. Vehicles are<br />

shown <strong>in</strong> Fig.3. Tanks were equipped with lamp radio receiver and pneumatic<br />

actuators. Despite <strong>in</strong>stall<strong>in</strong>g remotely controlled steer<strong>in</strong>g system, manned operation<br />

rema<strong>in</strong>ed available for modified tanks. The ma<strong>in</strong> purpose of the vehicle was<br />

carry<strong>in</strong>g chemical weapons system towards enemy positions without expos<strong>in</strong>g<br />

own personnel for risk. There was also version carry<strong>in</strong>g explosives as payload.<br />

Two battalions were equipped with TT-26 “Teletanks”, first one was destroyed<br />

dur<strong>in</strong>g first months of war. Second one was engaged <strong>in</strong> battle of Moscow but remote<br />

control equipment was unmounted and tanks were manned operated<br />

(Широкорад, 2005).<br />

Described above “Teletank” TT-26 was an universal military platform<br />

equipped with modern technology that allowed to extend the application area<br />

by unmanned operation mode ability with preserv<strong>in</strong>g full functionality as a<br />

manned vehicle.<br />

The research on unmanned autonomous vehicles was started <strong>in</strong> late 60's of 20 century.<br />

As a part of artificial <strong>in</strong>telligence application for controll<strong>in</strong>g the vehicles, a mobile<br />

robot SHAKEY fig. 4 was funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects<br />

Agency (DARPA) and developed at Stanford Research Institute. SHAKEY was<br />

equipped with a TV camera, ultrasonic range sensors and touch sensors connected by<br />

radio l<strong>in</strong>k with central computer perform<strong>in</strong>g navigation and exploration tasks.<br />

Fig. 4. SHAKEY (source: Hoggett R., 2005)<br />

SHAKEY was able to perform simple operations like route follow<strong>in</strong>g or navigation<br />

and also advanced missions provided by user (Hoggett, 2005).<br />

The overview of the unmanned vehicles show their evolution from simple cable-controlled<br />

or radio-controlled mach<strong>in</strong>es to the robot with some level of autonomy.<br />

The variety of unmanned vehicles used <strong>in</strong> military application caused the<br />

need of classification for different categories.

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