by 
Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are mobile robots or driverless vehicles designed to operate while in contact with the ground. UGVs can be used for various applications including search and rescue missions, bomb disposal, firefighting, agriculture and more. As technology is advancing rapidly, UGVs are becoming more autonomous, intelligent and capable of performing complex tasks.
Development of UGVs
The development of UGVs started in the 20th century primarily for military applications. One of the earliest UGVs was the teleoperated tactical mobile robot developed by Foster-Miller in the 1970s for bomb disposal operations. Since then, several militaries around the world have been developing and using UGVs for combat support, logistics, surveillance and explosive ordnance disposal. Driverless trucks were used to transport supplies on congested roadways in Iraq during the Gulf War in early 1990s.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, research intensified on UGVs for civilian purposes. Project Golem at Carnegie Mellon University developed UGVs that could navigate obstacle courses autonomously. Other notable projects included Minerva by the University of Parliament and PeopleBot by Nomadic Technologies for applications like package delivery. The DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004-2005 spurred significant advances in autonomous vehicle technology. UGVs proved they could navigate unrehearsed courses of over 100 miles in the Mojave Desert.
Types of UGVs
UGVs can be categorized based on their locomotion, size, mobility and degree of autonomy. Common locomotion types include wheels, tracks, legs and hybrid designs. In terms of size, UGVs range from small robots that can fit in the palm of a hand to large vehicles the size of trucks. Highly mobile UGVs are designed for rough terrains and obstacles while less mobile ones are limited to paved areas. The degree of autonomy refers to the level of human supervision required – from fully teleoperated to fully autonomous. Some prominent UGV types are:
– Teleoperated robots: Require constant human control using remote transmitters/receivers. Used for bomb disposal robots.
– Semi-autonomous robots: Can navigate autonomously within an area but require human assistance for navigation to new locations. Used for agriculture, material handling in factories.
– Fully autonomous robots: Capable of perceiving the environment and navigating without human control. Used in Minerva delivery robot in nursing homes.
Applications of UGVs
Military: UGVs are increasingly used for combat support, border patrol, facility protection as they remove soldiers from harm’s way. They carry heavy payloads across difficult terrains. Several armies successfully use UGVs for explosive ordnance disposal and surveillance.
Commercial: UGVs are utilized in industries like agriculture, construction, mining for tasks involving dull, dirty, dangerous jobs. They reduce risks to workers operating in hazardous environments involving toxic gases, heavy machinery. UGVs also deliver products in warehouses and factories reducing downtime.
Public Services: For tasks like firefighting, policing, search & rescue that are critical but dangerous to humans. Firefighting UGVs can enter burning structures to locate survivors. They also support police by gathering intelligence in hostage crises saving lives of SWAT teams.
Road & Infrastructure Maintenance: UGVs inspect roads, bridges, pipelines, power lines which are expensive to access otherwise. They detect faults and monitor assets in difficult terrains like mountains, oceans and forests. This helps in predictive maintenance to minimize disruption.
Future of UGVs
As UGVs become smarter through machine learning and artificial intelligence, their capabilities will expand significantly. A few developments expected in coming years are:
– Swarm robotics: Coordinated teams of UGVs working together on complex tasks through decentralization will be common. Example applications include precision agriculture, disaster response.
– Autonomous navigation: Advanced perception, spatial awareness and self-driving capabilities will enable UGVs to autonomously reach locations without prior training or preparation.
– Human-robot collaboration: UGVs will collaborate safely with human workers through intelligent interfaces and assistive robotic tools. This will revolutionize industries by augmenting human abilities.
– Energy independence: Advances in battery technologies coupled with hybrid and renewable energy sources will enable UGVs to operate for longer durations without human support.
– AI-enabled decision-making: Complex cognitive tasks involving perception, reasoning, planning in dynamic environments will be managed by UGVs through machine learning, deep learning and reasoning algorithms.
Conclusion
UGVs offer compelling advantages over human labor in hazardous, dull and dangerous applications. Their growing capabilities will make them suitable for an expanding range of civilian and defense missions. With continued technological advances, UGVs have the potential to revolutionize numerous industries and services through automation. Their role as partners to humans rather than replacements is expected to be a hallmark of future collaborative work environments.
*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
