Russia’s Android Technology company has integrated a range of counter-UAS systems (C-UAS) on to its recently developed Marker military uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) and networked them within an autonomous detect-and-mitigate C-UAS capability, according to Russian press reports.
According to Samuel Bendett from the Center for Naval Analysis in a Linkedin post: “According to Russia’s Android Technology company, its Marker ground robotic testing platform will be able to carry up to 16 “kamikaze” quadrocopters to counter aerial drones, as well as a C-UAS laser system.” Earlier press reports, however, contradicted this description of C-UAS technology employed on the UGV and said the C-UAS capabilities were developed around a radar and integrated grenade launcher.
Work on developing the UGC platform was completed in January this year, according to a RIA Novosti post. The news organisation quoted Yevgeny Dudorov, executive director of the NGO Android Technology: “We have conducted a number of tests related to countering UAVs, when drones are flying, the platform detects them automatically and hits them with the help of those means that are on the combat shooting module. This is a “near-hand” air defence system for hitting drones at short distances,” Dudorov said.
Said RIA Novosti: “To combat swarms of drones, Marker was equipped with a radar capable of recognizing aerial targets with a small scattering area and transmitting their coordinates to a rifle-grenade launcher module. Then the robot monitors the target with optics and hits from a regular machine gun…. Android Technology has developed algorithms for effective destruction of air targets specifically for Marker….the robot’s shooting range in the short-range air defence variant can rotate at speeds of 350 degrees per second.
“Marker recognizes targets with the help of a modern neural network device, which, after the necessary additional training, can do it faster and better than a person,” Dudorov said in an interview with the news agency. He added that the Marker has good accuracy indicators for destroying flying objects. “We conducted tests on bench shooting – where stand-up artists shoot at skeet. It has a diameter of about 100 millimetres and flies at a speed of about 90 kilometres per hour. Marker is confidently working on these plates with a probability of hitting about 80% from a carbine,” the executive director said.
According to the company’s website:
“The robotic platform “Marker”, developed by the National Center for the Development of Technologies and Basic Elements of Robotics of the Foundation for Advanced Research and the NGO “Android Technology”, is designed to develop key robotics technologies: technical vision, communication, navigation, autonomous movement and group control. The development has the most advanced in Russia technologies of autonomous movement with object recognition based on technologies with elements of artificial intelligence.
“The autonomy of the platform is ensured by a modular multispectral vision system. The unified payload module with an optoelectronic instrument unit has six independent axes of rotation and the possibility of installing two types of payloads that can be used independently of each other.
“The rotation speed of the payload elements is hundreds of angular degrees per second, which makes it possible to significantly improve the characteristics of speed and accuracy in the performance of tasks. Under the current conditions, the demand for the domestic electric component base has increased manifold. To solve problems in the interests of enterprises of the domestic military-industrial complex and corporations related to the development of critical components, the production of which is limited or absent in Russia, the Magnitogorsk enterprise develops and launches the production of priority positions of electric motors in the profile of existing competencies.”
For more information
Робототехника специального назначения на выставке «Армия-2022»
https://vpk.name/en/579476_developer-dudorov-the-marker-robot-was-tested-as-a-near-hand-air-defense-system.html
(Image: RAI Novosti)
