After unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) proved pivotal in the Ukraine conflict following Russia's invasion 16 months ago, researchers are now looking to ground drones as the future of military technology.
Yevhen Hnatok, a 22-year-old engineer in the field, claims to have given the Ukrainian military dozens of remote-controlled ground vehicles.
A recent demonstration was a little green vehicle with massive wheels and a landmine affixed to its back, which managed to go practically unnoticed over tall grass.
Replacing Frontline Soldier With Robots
Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) that transport guns and explosives or perform reconnaissance have been deployed into the battlefield by small-scale engineers like Hnatok in an effort to affect the result of the conflict.
According to Reuters, Ukraine hopes to retaliate against Russia's investment in UGVs, which includes military robots, by fostering innovation among small businesses, as it has done with aerial drones.
Hnatok is working on a bigger vehicle that can carry a 20mm cannon, while his smaller vehicles can carry an anti-tank mine or a remotely controlled machine gun up to 10 km (6 miles) distance from their operator. Some other machines may provide ammunition to the gun crews.
The young engineer said the primary objective was to reduce casualties by replacing as many humans as possible on the front lines with robots.
Russian soldiers' use of extensive networks of anti-infantry and anti-tank mines has been one of the key obstacles to Ukraine's projected summer counteroffensive. Of course, it is better to lose an inexpensive UGV to a landmine than a soldier.
UGVs have a number of benefits, one of which is their inexpensive cost. Hnatok's smaller machines may be put together for less than 30,000 hryvnias ($812).
Samuel Bendett, a senior scholar at the Center for a New American Security, claims that the effects of combat UGVs on both sides have been negligible thus far.
However, he warned that the UGV industry was one to keep an eye on because of the presence of educated and technologically savvy volunteers who are racing to develop new vehicles to give their army an edge.
The Engineer
A diverse group of young IT specialists and senior Soviet-educated aeronautical and tank experts make up Ukraine's grassroots defense innovation community. But, Hnatok is not part of any of these groups.
Although he only went to school for nine years, the engineer claims that his stepfather was mostly responsible for teaching him how to construct remote-controlled vehicles.
After fighting near Kyiv and in eastern Ukraine in the early months of the invasion, Hnatok spotted a post online showcasing a Russian vehicle and decided to start building UGVs in February.
Hnatok claims he makes no profit off of supplying vehicles to the military but instead asks them to just covers his expenses of manufacturing the devices.
