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Concept
Unmanned ground vehicle
Summary
An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is a vehicle that operates while in contact with the ground and without an onboard human presence. UGVs can be used for many applications where it may be inconvenient, dangerous, or impossible to have a human operator present. Generally, the vehicle will have a set of sensors to observe the environment, and will either autonomously make decisions about its behavior or pass the information to a human operator at a different location who will control the vehicle through teleoperation.
The UGV is the land-based counterpart to unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles. Unmanned robotics are being actively developed for both civilian and military use to perform a variety of dull, dirty, and dangerous activities.
In 1904, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo, while developing a radio-based control system he named Telekino, chose to conduct an initial test in the form of a three-wheeled land vehicle (tricycle), which had an effective range of just 20 to 30 meters, in which appears to be the first known example of a radio-controlled unmanned ground vehicle.
A working remote controlled car was reported in the October 1921 issue of RCA's World Wide Wireless magazine. The unmanned car was controlled wirelessly via radio; it was thought the technology could someday be adapted to tanks. In the 1930s, the USSR developed the Teletank, a small tank, armed with a machine gun, and remotely controlled by radio from another tank. Teletanks operated in the Winter War (1939–1940) against Finland and at the start of the German-Soviet War after the Axis powers invaded the USSR in 1941. During World War II, the British developed a radio-controlled version of their Matilda II infantry tank in 1941. Known as "Black Prince", it would have been used for drawing the fire of concealed anti-tank guns, or for demolition missions. Due to the costs of converting the transmission system of the tank to Wilson-type gearboxes, an order for 60 tanks was cancelled.
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