Rising Defence Application Propel Unmanned Ground Vehicles Industry
The unmanned ground vehicles industry is projected to rise in the coming years. It is attributed to the industry expansion that fuels the usage of robotics in affected areas such as biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear attacks. The surging demand for autonomous systems in commercial and defense sectors propels the industry. Moreover, the rising investments in acquisition and development of unmanned ground vehicles in the government sector fuel the industry growth.
Under the mode of operation, the autonomous category of unmanned ground vehicles is projected to experience the fastest growth, in the coming years. The autonomous mode facilitates UGVs carrying out tasks and operations mitigating human interference.
UGVs offer safe communications, and control, automated target detection, autonomous path following and obstacle avoidance are projected to provide assistance to militaries in surveillance, target acquisition missions, and reconnaissance.
North America is projected to experience the largest industry revenue in the coming years. The U.S. is one of the largest manufacturers, exporters, and users of unmanned military systems. That is why it generates the largest industry revenue.
Technological advancements such as AI, ML, virtual reality, blockchain, augmented reality, and computer vision has transformed unmanned ground vehicles. These technologies have enabled the successful integration of a plethora of applications, such as autonomous vehicles.
Autonomous vehicles can be operated by themselves, and perform various tasks intelligently executed with self-regulation. Unmanned vehicles can be categorized as unmanned ground vehicles. These are further sub-categorized into autonomous, remotely operated, unmanned underwater vehicles, and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Unmanned vehicle technology has gone through innovations led by research and development in various areas, including defense, mining, waste management, construction, agricultural equipment, and wildlife monitoring.
The research and development in UGVs concentrate on the self-regulation of autonomous self-driving vehicles on highways and congested cities.
In defense sector, research focused on the development of UGVs to undertake various missions such as reconnaissance, transportation, threat detection, rescue, acquisition of targets, combat operations, delivery of supplies and medication in remote areas, extended tunnel mapping, explosive ordinance disposal, and mine clearance.
The major players operating in the industry are; Oshkosh Defense, FLIR, BAE System, iRobot Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Therefore, the rising defense application of unmanned ground vehicles boosts industry growth.