If we say that the 'Crazy Bee' UAV swarm attack system developed by the Equipment Research Institute is used at the battle or battlefield strike level.
Then the ‘Battlefield Cleaner’ independently developed by Wu Hao and others is used in small-scale battles. The uses of the two are different, and the cost is also very different.
Although the core technologies all rely on cluster control technology, there are also big differences between the two.
First of all, the 'Crazy Bee' drone swarm attack system covers a wider airspace and has a larger swarm, so it is less affected by subtle terrain.
In terms of the attack method, it is also more direct and straightforward. Find the target and destroy it. If one doesn't work, just use a few more. Anyway, it won't be a problem for a huge cluster.
The 'battlefield sweeper' that deals with small-scale battlefields and battles cannot do this. Because the use environment and users are different, the cluster of such small drones cannot be too large.
Moreover, because of its small size, this kind of small high-speed drone has a very limited flight time, usually only about ten minutes.
This limits the number and coverage of the fleet, so ideally, the number of such small high-speed drone strike groups is generally about two to one hundred.
Below this number, there is another single type of small offensive drone. For example, in the military movie we showed before, the special operations team members used small drones to attack enemy mortar positions.
In fact, to put it bluntly, it is a small drone equipped with grenades. It can attack any target within a radius of one kilometer under the control of the user.
This distance has reached the attack distance of mortar rocket barrels, and is far beyond the effective shooting distance of some rifle grenades and rifles.
More importantly, it can be controlled at will. In other words, like a missile, it can attack the targets it wants to attack under human control.
And with a flying speed of nearly 300 kilometers per hour, it is difficult for the enemy to intercept it.
Therefore, this small high-speed attack drone has become an important fire strike weapon in the current special operations of various countries, and has also become a weapon for counter-sniper and counter-guerrilla attacks.
Of course, this kind of small UAV is not without its weaknesses. Its short endurance, light weight, small ammunition carrying capacity and limited power are all its weaknesses. Moreover, the control and hands-on ability requirements are relatively high, and the operator needs to practice a lot.
adapt.
There are more than this number, that is, large-scale swarm attack drones. The tasks they undertake have also reached the stage of battlefield, campaign and even strategic-level key target strikes, and are controlled by professional troops.
The 'Battlefield Cleaner' developed by Wu Hao and others is somewhere in between. In fact, to put it bluntly, it is to gather many small high-speed attack drones to form a small-scale battlefield strike group.
To deal with the enemy's small-scale effective forces.
Compared with the small high-speed attack drones that require special personnel to control, this battlefield sweeper only requires the user to launch it, set the corresponding reconnaissance and strike area, and then let it go, with a cluster of small high-speed attack drones
Automatically search for and attack enemy targets in the set area.
Moreover, this kind of drone can also be equipped with identification friend or foe technology. On the battlefield where the enemy is mixed with us, it can automatically identify our and enemy targets and carry out selective attacks.
For example, if our convoy or combat team is ambushed by the enemy. Usually in this environment, our counterattack is difficult to launch, and the battlefield sweeper can play its role at this time. Our personnel only need
Hide in the bunker and fly these small high-speed attack drones, and then you can search and attack enemy targets in the designated area.
Although the individual power of this small high-speed drone is relatively small, it attacks enemy personnel. If the accuracy is high enough, it can even get close to the enemy's most vulnerable face, neck, crotch, etc.
The lethal area explodes to kill or injure the enemy.
In fact, in current combat concepts, individual firepower equipment is no longer required to be very powerful. Whether it is rifle grenades or hand grenades, the amount of charge has been reduced.
It can be clearly seen from some data that during World War II, the charge of grenades was basically more than 100 grams, but now the charge of grenades equipped by various countries is around 50 or 60 grams, which has been reduced by more than double.
.
In addition to being convenient to carry and carrying more quantities, it is also to kill as many enemies as possible. Because in combat, killing one enemy is more effective than killing one enemy.
Although their ‘Battlefield Cleaner’ is relatively small in scale, and a single attack drone is also relatively small. However, compared to the ‘Crazy Bee’ drone swarm attack system, this ‘Battlefield Cleaner’ is more difficult.
The difficulty of the 'Crazy Bee' drone swarm attack system lies in the control and management of large drone swarms, while their battlefield sweeper lies in the timely capture and processing of information.
First of all, the first problem is how a small high-speed attack drone like theirs can maintain normal high-speed flight in complex terrain, such as jungles, cities, ruins, etc., and avoid hitting obstacles.
In this environment, there are many and complex obstacles. How a small high-speed attack drone can travel freely and at high speed without being affected requires specialized technology to solve the problem.
In the racing competition of the traversing machine, the contestants wear special first-view video glasses for control. The speed of the traversing machine and the smoothness of crossing obstacles completely depend on the personal reaction control of the operator.
Even players with rich experience and skills will often "explode" (Note 1) in complex environments.
Therefore, to overcome this problem, the drone must detect the surrounding environment and obstacles at all times, and quickly plan a feasible flight route independently.
The best solution is to install relevant sensors for the drone, such as distance sensors, radars, image sensors and other hardware equipment, so that the drone can detect surrounding obstacles.
It is not enough to just discover these obstacles, but also to perform fast calculation and processing. This requires optimization of the software. It is not enough to process this information correctly. It must be processed quickly or even in real time. If the processing speed cannot keep up,
If the flying speed of the drone is too high, the information obtained will not be timely and may cause the aircraft to crash.
This is just a flight problem. To achieve autonomous operations for a small high-speed attack drone, it must find the target, and how to find the target is also an urgent problem that needs to be solved.
Normally, this kind of target discovery work or task is judged by humans. But now it has to be solved by drones, and the difficulty has undoubtedly increased a lot.
[Note 1: Bombing is a term for model aircraft. Generally speaking, a flying model aircraft that crashes to the ground abnormally due to factors such as improper operation or machine failure is called a bombing. 】