Investigating the mobility of unmanned ground vehicles
Sid Odedra, Stephen Dominic Prior, Mehmet Karamanoglu · ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) · 2009
Unmanned Vehicles have to be as capable if not more capable than a human in the same situation, especially when used by the military to serve as an extension of the soldiers capability on the battlefield. All unmanned systems types have obstacles and encounter difficulties when trying to complete their missions, but none more so than the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). This is because UGV’s have to operate in environments with a large amount of variables which includes a range of different obstacles, and terrain types; making the simple task of driving from A to B very hard. This highlights the fact that a UGV’s capability is predominantly dependant on its mobility and is seen as one of the most important factors in their development, because the more capable of traversing over all types of terrain the vehicle is, then the less likely it will become stuck and need human assistance. This paper investigates current military UGV’s, their mobility capabilities and the future of UGV development