Prospects for the Use of Unmanned Ground Vehicles in Artillery

Survey

Jan Ivan

, Michal Sustr

, Ondřej Pekar

and Ladislav Potuzak

Fire Support Department, University of Defence, Kounicova 65, Brno, Czech Republic

Keywords: Artillery, Artillery Reconnaissance, Fires, Survey, Unmanned Ground Vehicle.

Abstract: The article deals with the currently realized research of a new survey vehicle of the Czech field artillery,

which task will be support of the activity of autonomous and non-autonomous artillery weapon systems. The

article describes the basic aspects of artillery survey together with the current progress of the project. Baseline

for the article is description of current status of Czech artillery survey and the way it supports the artillery

operations. The individual chapters then present the identified variants of the functionality of the gun

navigation system and the resulting requirements for the capability of the unmanned artillery survey vehicle.

Main focus of the article is to present specific approach which Czech armed forces have in terms of artillery

use under degraded and GPS denied operations. All these proposals are presented according to current status

of Czech artillery which transitions from non-autonomous 152mm howitzers to the new, NATO standard

155mm autonomous weapon systems.

1 INTRODUCTION

The use of artillery is evolving in time as well as

development of new technologies, which helps the

artillery to operate rapidly, independently and thus

efficiently. Although technological development is

rapid and use of state of the art technology is very

common these days, basics for artillery operations

remains the same. These basic are ballistic aspects,

calculation of firing data and many others. One of the

key basics is the use of topography and geodesy in

positioning and aiming artillery pieces.

Since the Czech artillery is currently switching

from non-autonomous to autonomous guns, research

team from the University of defence is currently

working on development of new approach to conduct

of artillery survey, which should be based on

unnmanned vehicles and use for surveying firing

positions of both gun types as well as for mortars.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6194-8482

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7342-7641

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3907-6865

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0213-717X

2 NAVIGATION OF ARTILLERY

PIECES

It should be stated right at the beginning why

topography and geodesy are considered so crucial for

artillery. Unlike some other military branches,

artillery, for its activity, requires precisely determined

coordinates of individual artillery system

emplacement (sensors and effectors or other systems)

as well as key directions from individual pieces (such

as gun to target lines or observer to target lines). This

informations are primary used for purpose of artillery

fire control to calculate firing data or fire corrections.

These data are connected and interdependent and thus

fire support cannot be provided without it.

At the aspect of navigation, it is currently possible

to distinguish two types of artillery weapon systems

– guns that have a built-in navigation system and guns

that do not have it. Weapon systems that have a built-

in some form of navigation system are referred to as

autonomous and guns that do not have this system as

non-autonomous. In this context, it is necessary to

Ivan, J., Sustr, M., Pekar, O. and Potuzak, L.

Prospects for the Use of Unmanned Ground Vehicles in Artillery Survey.

DOI: 10.5220/0011300100003271

In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO 2022), pages 467-475

ISBN: 978-989-758-585-2; ISSN: 2184-2809

467

perceive the difference in the notion of autonomous

and non-autonomous. In general, the notion of

autonomy in vehicles is associated with the absence

of the human element that controls the device. In the

case of artillery weapon systems and their navigation

system, autonomy is meant in relation to the need for

external conduction of artillery survey, which assists

in the navigation of the gun.

2.1 Non-autonomous Artillery Weapon

Systems

As already mentioned, the non-autonomous artillery

weapons do not have a navigation system and are thus

dependent on the conduction of the artillery survey

and preparation of fire positions where the non-

autonomous artillery weapons can conduct fire.

Preparation of firing positions, from the point of

view of TG (topographical-geodetic) connection for

non-autonomous weapon systems, consists of:

 determination and connection of base piece fire

emplacement and it´s orientation directions;

 determination of emplacement and orientation

directions to platoon commanders;

 determination and connection of other guns

firing positions;

 determination of site angle.

TG connection means, in the technical

terminology of artillery, “determination of

coordinates and altitudes of points and determination

of orientation directions.” (NN 22 01 01, 2020).

Orientation directions from gun fire emplacement

allow non-autonomous artillery weapons to aim at the

target.

Except of the main tasks of the artillery survey

units, consisting of TG connection, these units also

perform other tasks. These include in particular:

 specification and reconnaissance of the artillery

position area;

 specification and reconnaissance of command

posts emplacement area;

 specification and reconnaissance of logistics

and medical support units emplacement area;

 specification and reconnaissance of units

movement axes;

 detection of radiation, chemical and biological

situation;

 detection of enemy mines;

 detection of the enemy activity or presence of

civilian inhabitants.

These activities conduct artillery survey units

equipped with necessary technical assets to complete

all of these tasks.

Based on the mentioned, it is now obvious that the

tasks of artillery survey units are broad and cover both

the navigation survey as well as reconnaissance and

assessment of the areas.

2.2 Autonomous Artillery Weapon

Systems

Artillery autonomous weapon systems (as well as

sensors) are currently considered a standard type of

artillery weapons within NATO. Since these guns are

autonomous, they do not require conduction of

artillery survey in terms of navigation. These types of

land vehicles are equipped with navigation systems in

the form of inertial units supplemented by satellite

navigation receivers and (or) vehicle motion sensors.

The assembly of these instruments allows them to

determine precisely the coordinates of their current

position and the directions in which the barrel (in the

case of weapon systems) or reconnaissance device (in

the case of target acquisition systems) is aiming.

This capability has the significant advantage

because based on its capabilities it is not necessary to

carry out the preparation of fire positions

(reconnaissance posts), which results in:

 reduction of the risk of disclosure of individual

firing positions;

 reduction of the time required to prepare

artillery fire;

 reduction of human and material requirements;

 much greater autonomy in the activity of

artillery and target acquisition units.

The problem is that the autonomous navigation

capability of weapons and target acquisition systems

suggests there is no need of artillery survey units

anymore. However, it is clear that even with

maximum functionality of the navigation system,

there is still a need to conduct a survey of movement

axes and emplacement areas.

Nonetheless, it is more important to support the

function of the autonomous navigation system in the

case of degradation of its capabilities, whether it is a

deliberate degradation by the opponent or a

degradation caused by a malfunction. When the

system is degraded for whatever reason, the guns

must have an alternative means to be able to aim and

conduct fire. These supplementary methods mean

providing navigation points to guns (sensors) to

support accuracy of navigation systems or in the

overall execution of the preparation of fire positions

(observation posts) in the same form as for non-

autonomous guns. However, both these backup

techniques cannot be realized without artillery survey

ICINCO 2022 - 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics

468

units, which have the ability to eliminate these

failures of the navigation system and maintain the

ability of the artillery and target acquisition units to

operate in any environment and under any conditions.

The availability of artillery survey units is thus

crucial, even when the army is equipped with

autonomous guns.

2.3 Role of Artillery Survey

Currently, all weapon systems of the Czech Army

artillery are non-autonomous and require the

conduction of artillery survey. In 2021 a new,

autonomous gun in the standardized caliber of NATO

155mm (155mm SpG CEASAR 8x8 CZ) was

purchased, which will significantly change the

approaches to the conduction of artillery survey (see

chapter 3).

Despite the implementation of an autonomous

weapon system, the Czech Armed Forces will also

have non-autonomous types of systems in the form of

mortars in the range of calibers 60/81/120 mm. The

implementation of artillery survey will have to be

preserved, however, with a fundamental change in the

form of the execution of this type of activity, which

will have to be modified in favour of newly acquired

155 mm SpG CAESAR.

It is necessary to mention the fact, that the Czech

Armed Forces and their effort to preserve artillery

survey units is relatively unique across the NATO

armies. Many countries rely exclusively on the

capabilities of the weapon navigation system, which

they assess as reliable and does not prepare for the

possibilities of backup function. Other option

includes the preservation of only reconnaissance

capability of artillery survey units, which could

perform broad reconnaissance of axes and areas and

which would not have the ability to prepare positions

areas for artillery.

The effort of the Czech Armed Forces, however,

is to preserve the ability to support the activity of the

guns even in the case of operations in the GNSS

(Global Navigation Satellite System) degraded

environment and thus maintain the ability of complete

preparation of firing positions. This requirement

applies not only to artillery survey, but also to other

domain such as the backup ability to determine the

firing data in case of failure of the artillery automated

fire control system.

Effort to preserve the ability to conduct artillery

survey and further development of its implementation

in favor of autonomous systems have currently

intersected with the obsolescence of the equipment of

artillery survey units. Thus, within the framework of

development of artillery survey units, there is

currently project being conducted aimed on the

development of a new survey vehicle and setting up

the overall concept of artillery survey. This project

focuses on each level of command and estimate

procedures to efficient support the activity of both

self-propelled artillery and mortar batteries. At the

same time, it deals the support of mortar batteries of

special forces, which have specific requirements

resulting from the nature of their activities.

3 PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT

OF ARTILERY SURVEY

The research team from the Department of Fire

Support of the University of Defence was tasked with

the project to develop the artillery survey capability

and update its conduction to the conditions of the

current battlefield and of the Czech Armed Forces

artillery equipment. The objectives of the project are

in particular:

1) analyse the current approach to conducting of

artillery survey;

2) analyse the way of conducting artillery survey

in selected countries of the world;

3) analyse the variants of the functionality of

autonomous gun navigation systems;

4) analyse the specific needs of conducting

artillery survey in special forces units;

5) analyse the modern technologies facilitating

the conducting of artillery survey;

6) analyse the opportunities to increase the

capability of artillery survey units by means of

modern technologies;

7) propose a comprehensive concept of

conducting artillery survey within artillery

battalions;

8) propose a technical solution for a new vehicle

for artillery survey units;

9) propose a possible technical solution of

unmanned survey vehicle.

The main output of the research project will be a

proposal of a technical solution of a new survey

vehicle. This vehicle must allow raealization of

artillery survey in favour of both autonomous and

non-autonomous artillery systems. Additional output

will be a proposal of implementation of unmanned

systems, which would work particularly in favour of

special forces mortar units.

In this article, the present progress and the

achieved outputs of the project will be described.

These outputs will relate in particular to the lessons

Prospects for the Use of Unmanned Ground Vehicles in Artillery Survey

469

learned from the analysis of the current status

(Objectives 1-2). In addition, a description of possible

variants of the functionality of the autonomous

navigation systems and the outputs of conducting

artillery survey in favour of small special forces units

will be provided. The main part will be Chapter 4,

within which the basic requirements for an unmanned

vehicle will be defined.

3.1 Analytical Outputs

Currently in Czech army, conducting artillery survey

is set according to the actual weapon systems, which

are non-autonomous and their navigation abilities

relate to the time of their creation. The major role in

conducting artillery survey lies on the vehicle UAZ-

452T. This vehicle is already a considerably obsolete

type of technology, whose usability corresponds to

the time of its creation. Abilities and usability of

equipment of this vehicle was analyzed in the project

and evaluated in purpose of development of new

survey vehicle.

The UAZ-452T was introduced at a time when

satellite navigation systems were not available and it

was built to help survey team to accurately connect

fire positions for artillery units to conduct fire. Thus,

the basis of this vehicle is an inertial navigation unit

connected to protractor device. With this inertial unit

the vehicle operator could accurately determine the

coordinates of the vehicle together with directions to

the designated points. Survey units were able to

perform described activities without external inputs

of satellite navigation. For this reason it is possible to

see a parallel with the conditions of operation in

GNSS degraded environment, where the signal from

satellite navigation will not be available as well. The

basic principle of the UAZ-452T vehicle activity was

an initialization of the navigation unit above the point

with precisely determined coordinates (comparison

of the coordinate above the geodesic point).

Although a satellite navigation systems are

currently available, it is essential that the newly

developed vehicle has alternatives that allow to

determine the exact coordinates and directions from

each points without using satellite systems, i.e.

similar to UAZ-452T (Ivan and Potužák and Šotnar,

2019).

In addition to the TG connection, the UAZ-452T

allows carrying additional material, which can be

used by survey units to prepare the areas of fire

positions.

An important lesson from the analysis of the

present situation is that the current procedures do not

work with variants of the activity in favour of

autonomous systems, because they were not

implemented at the time of the introduction of the

UAZ-452T vehicle. Therefore, it is necessary in the

next step of the research project to analyse procedures

of autonomous systems, which will define partial

requirements on conducting artillery survey.

The findings from the analysis of the current way

of conducting artillery survey are as follows:

 the vehicle UAZ-452T with its capabilities

allows to perform the tasks of artillery survey

in favor of non-autonomous guns. However,

due to its age and technical limitations must be

replaced;

 the new survey vehicle shall be built on a

similar but upgraded basis to the UAZ-452T,

i.e. equipped with an inertial navigation unit to

perform tasks in GNSS degraded operation

environment;

 The new survey vehicle must be capable of

performing tasks to support the operation of

both non-autonomous and, in particular,

autonomous artillery systems at all levels of

functionality.

The main objective of the research project is to

create a new survey vehicle, which will serve as a

replacement of the currently used UAZ-452T vehicle.

The new type of vehicle must cover the capabilities

of all types of currently and prospectively introduced

weapon systems, which will be both autonomous and

non-autonomous.

However, the partial output of the project is also

an evaluation of the possibilities of application of

modern technologies and the use of unmanned

platforms for conducting artillery survey. The next

chapters of this article describe the current knowledge

of the project solutions – i.e. the definition of variants

of the functionality of the gun navigation system.

Design of both the crew and unmanned vehicle will be

based on this knowledge. Further, the chapter describes

the requirements for unmanned vehicle according to

the identified variants of the functionality of the

navigation system of autonomous guns.

3.2 Variants of the Gun Navigation

System Functionality

The following step in the realization of the research

project was the identification of possible variants of

the functionality of the gun (sensor) navigation

system. When determining variants of the

functionality of the navigation system, the scenario

method was used, while variants of the functionality

were created for navigation systems based on an

ICINCO 2022 - 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics

470

Table 1: Variants of gun navigation system functionality and survey tasks.

Variants Gun navi

ation Surve

tasks

INS/GPS

Maneuver axes

(roads) survey

Survey control

points creation

INS -

INS Keeping own INS accurate

Externall

Complete firing position preparation

inertial navigation unit supplemented by a satellite

navigation receiver (INS/GPS) or vehicle motion

sensor (Table 1). Navigation units based on these

devices represent the absolute standard of equipment

of modern military equipment.

Following functionality variants for the INS/GPS

navigation units were identified by scenario method:

1) maximum functionality of INS/GPS unit;

2) GPS receiver malfunction;

3) satellite navigation unavailability;

4) complete failure of the gun navigation system.

3.2.1 Maximum Functionality of INS/GPS

The maximum functionality of the navigation system

is defined as the sole use of satellite navigation (GPS

receiver) for gun navigation, which is continuously

refining the inertial navigation unit (INS). The gun is

thus completely independent and does not need

additional support from survey units for its navigation.

With the maximum functionality of the gun

navigation system, the survey units will perform two

basic tasks – the reconnaissance of maneuever axes

(areas) and the creation of navigation control points

as a backup in case of failure of satellite navigation.

These control points would be used to refine the

inertial navigation unit by comparison of coordinates

in case of satellite navigation unavailability

(functionality variant 2).

3.2.2 GPS Receiver Malfunction

When the GPS receiver is not working, the navigation

of the guns depends exclusively on the INS, which

must be periodically refined by other means to ensure

its accuracy and thus the accuracy of the artillery fire.

For these cases, it is necessary that there are enough

control points in the area with precisely defined

coordinates (and optimally directions to landmarks)

by which the inertial navigation unit can be refined.

This functionality variant does not change the

requirements for the capability of the survey vehicle,

since the navigation control points must be created at

full functionality (functionality variant 1). The only

difference is that these navigation points are actually

used. Thus, the survey units perform the same tasks

in this variant as in the full functionality variant of the

navigation unit (functionality variant 1), i.e. they

reconnoitre the manuever axes (areas) and create the

navigation control points.

3.2.3 Satellite Navigation Unavailability

The unavailability of the GPS signal is situation

where both gun and survey units navigation

capabilities are degradedd. The reason behind is that

primary navigation system of a new survey vehicle is

assumed to be based on the same navigation systems

as for the guns, i.e. INS/GPS.

This situation may (and it is predicted to be the

most likely situation) be caused by interference with

satellite navigation, or the destruction of satellites. In

this case, the navigation of the guns goes again

exclusively to the inertial navigation unit, which has

to be refined to ensure accuracy of the navigation

system (equivalent of functionality variant 2).

However, a partial problem occurs with survey units,

which also have to refine the INS of their navigation

unit. This can be done by comparing data with already

created navigation, trigonometric or geodetic points.

Thus, the survey units will still conduct tasks as in

the case of functionality of variants 1 and 2, i.e.

primarily to create control navigation points for the

guns and to conduct reconnaissance of manuever axes

and areas. However, during this activity, they must

continuously refine their own navigation unit so that

the points determined by them are created in the

required accuracy. Although the general tasks

conducted by survey units will remain the same, there

will be an increase in the requirements of their activity

to preserve the required accuracy of navigation data.

3.2.4 Complete Failure of the Gun

Navigation System

This is the situation of a complete gun navigation

system failure and no navigation data from the

INS/GPS system is available. The basic variable here

is the character of the gun deployment - whether it

operates together with the unit or the individual gun

operate separately. In the case of the gun deployment

together with the unit in one fire position, it is possible

to take position data form the gun next to. However,

reduced accuracy should be expected and accepted.

Prospects for the Use of Unmanned Ground Vehicles in Artillery Survey

471

In terms of the probability of a complete failure of

the gun navigation system, this failure is most likely

in one cannon, while the failure of the navigation

system in all cannons of the unit is not very likely.

However, when this situation occur, survey units

must be equipped to conduct full preparation of

artillery position area (Němec and others, 2021).

3.3 Analytical Conclusions

Analysis of the conduction of survey and variants of

the functionality of the gun navigation system

revealed that the most common task of survey units

for autonomous gun would be the reconnaissance of

maneuver axes (areas) and the creation of navigation

points. These navigation points will help the inertial

navigation unit to reamin accurate in case of

malfunction. Another task is the ability to fully

prepare firing positions in case of a total failure of the

weapons navigation system.

However, in terms of frequency of use, the main

tasks performed will be the creation of navigation

points. The ground survey vehicle platforms must be

adequately equipped for these tasks.

4 REQUIREMENTS ON FUTURE

SURVEY VEHICLE

The analytical outputs clearly showed the main tasks

of artillery survey units, which will be performed in

favour of prospectively implemented weapon

systems. Followed requirements for the survey

vehicle were defined based on the identified tasks.

One of the main theses that the research team

included in the project solution was the possibility of

creating a unmanned survey vehicle. After analysing

the current technical possibilities and solutions of

unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) available on the

market, it was found that UGV would be the most

applicable for conducting the reconnaissance of

maneuver axes and areas. Creation of navigation

control points, which is another main task of survey

units, cannot be realized with the current technical

possibilities and further development of technologies

will be necessary.

4.1 Unmanned Survey Vehicle

Requirements

As already mentioned, the realisation of the

reconnaissance of maneuver axes and areas will be

the most frequent and at the same time the most

suitable task for the unmanned survey vehicle. The

defined requirements for the capability of the vehicle

have been divided into the survey of maneuver axes

and the survey of position areas for artillery (firing

positions).

4.1.1 Survey of Maneuver Axes

Survey of maneuver axis is crucial in the framework

of artillery survey to verify the patency of all paths on

which artillery units can move (Rybanský and Rada

and Dohnal, 2021). Movements are decisive factor for

artillery units especially because of maintaining the

range to provide fire support and also because of their

own survivability, in terms of counter-battery fire

(Kompan and Hrnčiar, 2022).

In the survey of maneuver axes are evaluated:

 dimensions of paths (width and clearance

height);

 load capacity of paths;

 dimensions of bridges;

 load capacity of bridges;

 impassable places;

 risky places (glens etc.);

 mine hazard;

 infestation of weapons of mass destruction;

 others.

For the maneuver axis survey, the vehicle shall be

equipped with an assembly of sensor and other

sensing systems to enable the abovementioned tasks

to be accomplished. The essential requirements for

the maneuver axis survey unmanned vehicle have

been defined as follows (the vehicle should have):

1) INS/GPS navigation system;

2) software tracking application within which it

will be possible to plan the movement route;

3) optoelectronic system allowing real-time

image recording and transmission;

4) distribution-communication device;

5) penetrometer to survey the load capacity of the

soil;

6) soil mine detection system;

7) use of weapons of mass destruction detection

system;

8) driving range of at least 100 km.

4.1.2 Area Survey

Areas survey for firing units is conducted with the

aim of identifying and evaluating areas of firing

positions and preliminary areas. The importance of

this task is equivalent to maneuver axes survey. The

main attributes of firing positions are open terrain,

which must be bearable for artillery equipment and

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472

must allow rapid manoeuvre in and out of these areas

(existence of in and out paths). In contrast,

preliminary areas are determined where conditions

allow concealing the equipment.

In addition the areas must also be prepared in the

form of TG connection of key points. However, this

preparation is realized only for non-autonomous guns

or in cases when the navigation system fails

completely and it is not possible for the autonomous

guns to distribute navigation data from other guns.

As mentioned before, the UGVs are considered

only for conducting area and axis reconnaissance

because TG connection of key points is a very

complex matter and its implementation using

unmanned vehicles would be eventual realized in the

second step of the development of survey vehicles.

Following factors are evaluated within the scope

of the area survey:

 dimensions of areas;

 possible locations of firing units or individual

artillery systems;

 surface and soil structure;

 paths in and out of area;

 possibilities of concealment;

 etc.

Survey of areas is as crucial as survey of

maneuver axis and thus the unmanned vehicle shall

be equipped with designated means. On the positive

side, all technical means used in the survey of axes

are applicable in the survey of areas.

In addition to the systems referred to in Chapter

4.1.1, it is necessary for the unmanned survey vehicle

to be equipped with a ground surveillance radar

which could partially detect the presence of vehicles,

persons and small unmanned aerial platforms (Nohel

and Zahradníček and Flasar and Rak, 2021).

However, the research also assessed the negatives

of the ground surveillance radar. One of the

disadvantage of radar is the capability to detect only

moving objects (vehicles, persons, aircrafts). Another

negative is that the radars with their active radiation

reveal their location. It is also necessary to be able to

detect hidden threats (ambushes) and to mitigate the

risk of destroying own forces. For this reason it is

necessary that the optoelectronic set has a thermal

detector that would allow to detect such a hidden

threats.

It is necessary that the optoelectronic set is

connected to the navigation system and at the same

time supplemented by a laser rangefinder.

Optoelectronic system serves not only for detection

of threats, but also for the purpose of reconnaissance

and determination of coordinates of points.

4.2 Unmanned Survey Vehicle Point

Setting Requirements

According to the findings mentioned in chapter 3.2,

one of the main tasks of the artillery survey units even

at the maximum functionality of the navigation

system is the creation of control navigation points,

which will allow to refine the accuracy of the inertial

navigation units.

This task is one of the most challenging in terms

of the possible involvement of unmanned vehicles.

The reason is that this point has to be precisely located

and at the same time physically marked on the surface

so the artillery (or other) units can easily find it and

can run vehicles over these points to make a

coordinates comparison.

Thus, the research team concluded that the

solution to this problem must be viewed from two

different points of view. The first is the location of a

point in the form of an exact determination of its

coordinates. The second is then the physical creation

of a point on the surface of the terrain.

In terms of locating the points, this is a problem

which is easily solved by the instruments which the

vehicle must be equipped with to carry out the survey

of maneuver axes and areas. If the survey UGV had

an optoelectronic set supplemented by a laser

rangefinder and linked to the INS/GPS navigation

system, it would be possible to determine precisely

the coordinates of the points targeted by this

optoelectronic set. A problematic aspect is the

accuracy of the measurement by the optoelectronic

set and the possibility of distortion due to the terrain

and interference with the accuracy of the

measurement by the laser rangefinder (Varecha and

Mušinka, 2019, Varecha, 2020).

An alternative solution may be the indented

localisation of points based on the current position of

the UGV. This option seems preferable in some cases,

but requires the duplicate determination of UGV

coordinates as output from the navigation system of

the INS/GPS UGV survey unit.

It is also necessary to take into account the

assumption of a software map tool, which will allow

both the conversion of polar coordinates (direction,

distance and position angle) into rectangular

coordinates and plot them into a digitized map layer.

However, this tool has already been created at the

University of Defence and based on the evaluation

carried out by the research team, therefore, the

unmanned localization of coordinates is not a

problem (Nohel and Stodola and Flasar, 2021).

The actual challenge for survey UGV is the

creation of navigation control points. Control point

Prospects for the Use of Unmanned Ground Vehicles in Artillery Survey

473

should be a ground metal target with cross marking

the exact coordinates on the surface (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Civilian version of survey point (Matori and

Atunggal and Cahyono, 2008).

The problem is how to firmly attach it to the

earth's surface by the UGV.

In general, the determination of point coordinates

on a theoretical basis is possible. Similarly, but with

significantly greater problems, the actual creation of

points in the field is theoretically solvable. In

practical terms, however, a very specific technologies

must be created first. For example a combination of

existing technologies that would be able to physically

realize this in the challenging conditions of military

conflict.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Artillery survey is a compex solution to enable

artillery operations. In current state of technological

development it very often seem as a useless tool, but

this is considered as a wrong point of view.

Artillery survey is still a key activity that must

sustain even when autonomous weapon systems are

being used, so that it can be used to support their

function even when modern technologies fail or are

just not available. As we can see from the current

conflict in Ukraine, it is more than important not to

rely solely on modern technologies, but to have a

backup solution ready, which can represent the

difference between the ability and inability to conduct

fire.

The research and development of a new survey

vehicle is guided by the reasons given, in which the

use of unmanned platforms is also considered. The

specified requirements for the survey UGV will be

further compared with modern technologies and

implementation possibilities.

The overall output of the project will be the design

of crew and unmanned reconnaissance vehicle, which

must be able to fulfil the tasks of artillery survey for

both autonomous and non-autonomous weapon

systems.

Current state of knowledge in terms of possible

use of UGV in artillery survey is, that these vehicles

can be used. Hovewer, there are some issues, that

need to be solved – one of the biggest is development

of technology which will allow placement of control

points on precisely located spot by the UGV.

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