Introduce...

Usually people think that military robots belong to science fiction or to the future. There are people that are aware that robots are being used in military nowadays. But there are only a handful of people that know that the history of robotic devices used in military starts as far back as the end of 19th century.

What do you know about history of military robots?

I am sure you’ll find something new and exciting about robotics history in military in this article.

Contents...

1)Radio controlled boat

Everything started at the end of the 19th century, precisely in 1898. That year the famous inventor Nicola Tesla demonstrated one of his inventions. This invention was a radio controlled boat intended for military use. You can see a model of it to the left.

Mr. Tesla offered his invention to US navy in order to produce radio controlled torpedoes. When the navy refused, he offered his invention to the United Kingdom. However, it seems that his invention was just too much to handle for people of that time.

2)Teletank

The next prominent step in this field was achieved in 1930-ties in the Soviet Union. The soviets made a remotely controlled tank so called – teletanks. The tank’s control system was modified and pneumatics, electric relays and radio signals were used to control the tank. One tank, codenamed TT, was a radio controlled tank the other was a command center codenamed ТУ. The crew was located at the ТУ and could remotely control the TT.
The teletank could be controlled from 500-1500m away depending of weather and other conditions. The T-18, T-26, T-27 and TT-БТ-7 were developed as teletanks. Only T-26 teletank was used in combat in Winter War though.

3)Goliath

Goliath is a name of a mobile landmine used in WWII by the Third Reich’s forces. It was approximately 1,50 m long, 0,85m wide and 0,6 m high. It had two tracks and it was controlled remotely using a wire. The goliath was intended to be blown up at the target. So it was not reusable. The price was one of the reasons why it was not viewed as a great success. This was too costly for a single-use weapon. Still, in total 7,564 goliaths were produced.

4)UAVs

An article on military robots history would not be finished if I did not tell something about the rise of UAVs. UAV stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The UAVs were used for anti-aircraft training as early as 1916. Some early unmanned aerial vehicles were designed and built during the First World War too. These early models were launched from a catapult and flown by radio. However, the turning point came in 1960s when reconnaissance drones were developed.

5) Modern days

Today there are various applications of autonomous military systems in development and currently operational. They range from unmanned vehicles used for guard or sentry duties, explosive ordinance disposal, logistics, reconnaissance, ballistic weapon platforms and even for repairing ground conditions under fire, to name but a few.

By 2013, the U.S. Army had purchased 7,000 such machines and 750 of which were destroyed in action. Militaries are currently developing robots outfitted with machine guns and grenade launchers that may replace soldiers.

Military autonomous systems are likely to grow in numbers and roles exponentially in the future as armies continue to develop and invest in this technology. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation adopted a concept for the development of robotic complexes until 2025, according to which in the future the share of robotics in the army will be 30%.

6)Nerechta

The smartest robot is "Nerekhta", the production of the plant named after him. Degtyareva, moves on a tracked platform, performs the functions of a special forces soldier.

He can work in a team with other robots, and his artificial intelligence is being improved daily. It was invented as an artillery fire spotter, but later it was equipped with a large-caliber machine gun, which carries out continuous high-speed shooting. That is, it turned out to be a multifunctional Russian military robot with intelligence, which can currently transport cargo and carry out reconnaissance on the ground.

The control is performed remotely, from the remote control.

A fearless commando will destroy a machine-gun crew, support his soldiers in battle, monitor the object at any time of the day or perform a combat mission behind enemy lines.

The Russian combat robot "Nerekhta" in the future plans to make a personal squire of each fighter. It will be possible to control it by gesture and voice, the weapons of the fighter and the car will be synchronized.

Resources

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