[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

Technology Development of Military Applications of Unmanned Ground Vehicles 307
Maneuverability of described vehicle allows it to follow the tanks. Technical data
of described vehicle are shown in Table 11.
4 Perspectives and Directions of Unmanned Ground Vehicle
Development
Asymmetry of contemporary battlefield causes losses not only in equipment but
after all in soldiers. So, there is the reason for searching the ways of gaining advantage
over the enemy by implementation modern technologies in military
equipment and weapons system. New technologies are supposed to achieve the
ability of detection, identification and elimination the threats of asymmetric warfare.
The main issue is soldiers protection. Their operations in the dangerous areas
should be minimized by implementing the unmanned systems: remotely controlled,
automatic and in the most advanced solutions – autonomous. To be fully
autonomous the artificial technology, navigation, communication techniques
should be developed. It is very important to develop the power supply systems.
The lessons learned experiences gained in combat missions indicate the need of
changing the concept of use the forces by development of new operational capabilities
based on usage of newest technologies and techniques to defense against
new threats like Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). IEDs being relatively
cheap and simple technology of irregular troops or terrorists but one of the most
dangerous threats of asymmetric warfare are able to cause heavy losses to regular
forces. These and other threats determine the research efforts to develop the techniques
and technologies involving unmanned ground vehicles applications. As
they are exposed on risk of being destroyed in the explosion, they should be relatively
inexpensive but on the other hand equipped with necessary set of sensors
and effectors for proper navigation, reconnaissance, detection and elimination the
threats and also efficient communication, control and propulsion system allowing
to perform mission with minimum or without human interaction. To be relatively
cheap it is worth to focus on modular solutions of the systems to make possible
dedicated usage of unmanned ground systems. Finding compromise between these
criteria is very difficult and demands building of interdisciplinary consortia of
scientific and industrial entities. The permanent end user interaction in all phases
of development process and also in the whole life cycle management of the system
is necessary.
5 Summary
The current threats generate the need for new capabilities. There is a great impact
of new technologies on military applications of unmanned ground vehicles. They
create new areas of usage of these systems. Asymmetric warfare weapons like
Improvised Explosive Devices determines requirements for UGVs.