Target Acquisition and Engagement from an Unmanned Ground Vehicle: The Robotics Test Bed of Demo 1.
Abstract
The capability of robotic technology to perform dangerous military missions without exposing troops to hazard has been of significant interest to the U.S. Army. Much of this interest has focused on unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). Perceived benefits include force multiplication, reduction of military hazard, and operation in nuclear/biological/chemical environments. UGVs have been discussed for a number of missions, including antitank, mine neutralization, physical security, smoke generation, scout, sentry, forward observer, and others. This report describes and discusses one of the first military UGVs, the robotics test bed (RTB). The RTB is a teleoperated vehicle with on-board automatic target acquisition system and turret-mounted weapon surrogate. The perspective of this report is primarily on robotic target engagement, with other aspects of the program and equipment being covered as context. The history of the program provides context for system design. Major subsystems of the vehicle are described, with detailed description of the target acquisition and engagement subsystems. A description of the use of the system in a recent demonstration of the capabilities of military robotics illustrates how such a system might be used in war fighting. Issues in robotic target engagement are discussed and further work is proposed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA308459
Entities
People
- Bailey T. Haug
- Gary A. Haas
- Phillip David
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory