Since the emergence of natural sciences, scientists have dreamed of creating a mechanical man capable of replacing him in a number of areas of human activity: in hard and unattractive jobs, in war and in high-risk areas. These dreams often outpaced reality, and then mechanical wonders appeared before the eyes of the amazed public, which were still very far from a real robot. But time passed, and robots became more and more perfect … very far from a real robot. But time passed, and robots became more and more perfect …
Robots of antiquity and the middle ages
The first mentions of artificial humanoid creatures performing various works can be found already in the mythology of ancient peoples. These are the golden mechanical assistants of the god Gefes, described in the Iliad, and artificial beings from the Indian Upanishads, and the androids of the Karelian-Finnish epic Kalevala, and the Golem from the Hebrew legend. How far these fantastic stories correspond to reality is not for us to judge. In reality, the very first "humanoid" robot was built in Ancient Greece.
The name of Heron, who worked in Alexandria and therefore was nicknamed Alexandria, is mentioned in modern encyclopedias around the world, briefly retelling the contents of his manuscripts.
Two thousand years ago, he completed his work, in which he systematically outlined the main scientific achievements of the ancient world in the field of applied mathematics and mechanics (moreover, the titles of individual sections of this work: "Mechanics", "Pneumatics", "Metrics" - sound quite modern).
Reading these sections, one is amazed at how much his contemporaries knew and were able to do. Geron described devices ("simple machines") using the principles of operation of a lever, gate, wedge, screw, block; he assembled numerous mechanisms driven by liquid or heated steam; outlined the rules and formulas for accurate and approximate calculation of various geometric shapes. However, in the writings of Heron there are descriptions not only of simple machines, but also of automata operating without direct human participation on the basis of the principles used today.
No state, no society, collective, family, no person could ever exist without measuring time in one way or another. And the methods of such measurements were invented in the most ancient times. So, in China and India, klepsydra appeared - a water clock. This device has become widespread. In Egypt, clepsydra was used as early as the 16th century BC, along with a sundial. It was used in Greece and Rome, and in Europe, it counted the time until the 18th century AD. In total - almost three and a half millennia!
In his writings, Heron mentions the ancient Greek mechanic Ctesibius. Among the inventions and designs of the latter, there is also a clepsydra, which even now could serve as an adornment for any exhibition of technical creativity. Imagine a vertical cylinder on a rectangular stand. There are two figures on this stand. One of these figures, depicting a crying child, is supplied with water. The child's tears flow down into the vessel in the stand of the clepsydra and the float placed in this vessel is raised, connected to the second figure - a woman holding a pointer. The woman's figure rises, the pointer moves along the cylinder, which serves as the dial of this watch, showing the time. The day in the clepsydra of Ktesibia was divided into 12 daytime "hours" (from sunrise to sunset) and 12 nighttime "hours". When the day ended, the drain of accumulated water opened, and under its influence the cylindrical dial turned by 1/365 of a full revolution, indicating the next day and month of the year. The child continued to cry, and the woman with the pointer began her journey from the bottom up again, indicating the day and night "hours", previously agreed upon with the time of sunrise and sunset on that day.
Timers were the first machines designed for practical purposes. Therefore, they are of particular interest to us. However, Heron, in his writings, describes other automata, which were also used for practical purposes, but of a completely different nature: in particular, the first trading apparatus known to us was a device that dispensed "holy water" for money in Egyptian temples.
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There is nothing surprising in the fact that it was among the watchmakers that outstanding craftsmen appeared who amazed the whole world with their products. Their mechanical creatures, outwardly similar to animals or people, were able to perform sets of various movements, similar to those of animals or humans, and the external forms and shell of the toy further enhanced its resemblance to a living creature.
It was then that the term "automaton" appeared, by which, until the beginning of the 20th century, was understood, as indicated in the old encyclopedic dictionaries, … (Note that "android" is the Greek word for humanoid.)
The construction of such an automaton could last for years and decades, and even now it is not easy to understand how it was possible, using handicraft techniques, to create a whole lot of mechanical transmissions, place them in a small volume, link together the movements of many mechanisms, and select the necessary ratios of their sizes. All parts and links of the machines were made with pinpoint precision; at the same time, they were hidden inside the figures, setting them in motion according to a rather complex program.
We will not now judge how perfect “humanoid” the movements of these automata and androids seemed then. Better just give the floor to the author of the article "Automatic", published in 1878 in the St. Petersburg Encyclopedic Dictionary:
“Much more surprising were the automata made by the French mechanic Vaucanson in the last century. One of his androids, known as "flutist", had 2 yards in a sitting position, along with his pedestal. 51/2 inches high (that is, about 170 cm), played 12 different pieces, producing sounds by simply blowing air from the mouth into the main hole of the flute and replacing its tones with the action of fingers on the other holes of the instrument.
Another android of Vaucanson played the Provençal flute with his left hand, played the tambourine with his right hand and clicked his tongue, as was the custom of the Provençal flutes. Finally, the bronze tin duck of the same mechanic - perhaps the most perfect of all the automata known to this day - not only imitated with extraordinary accuracy all the movements, shouts and grips of its original: it swam, dived, splashed in the water, etc., but even pecked food with the greed of a living duck and carried out to the end (of course, with the help of chemicals hidden inside it) the usual process of digestion.
All of these machines were publicly exhibited by Vaucanson in Paris in 1738.
No less amazing were the automata of Vaucanson's contemporaries, the Swiss Dro. One of the automatons they made, an android girl, played the piano, the other, in the form of a 12-year-old boy sitting on a stool at the control panel, wrote several phrases in French from the script, dipped a pen into an inkwell, shook off excess ink from it, observed perfect correctness in the placement of lines and words and, in general, performed all the movements of the scribes …
Dro's best work is considered to be a clock presented to Ferdinand VI of Spain, with which a whole group of different automata was connected: a lady sitting on the balcony was reading a book, sometimes sniffing tobacco and, apparently, listening to a piece of music played out for hours; the tiny canary fluttered and sang; the dog guarded the basket with fruits and, if someone took one of the fruits, barked until it was put back in place …"
What can be added to the evidence of the old dictionary?
The scribe was built by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, an outstanding Swiss watchmaker. Following this, his son Henri built another android - a "draftsman". Then both mechanics - father and son together - invented and built a "musician" who played the harmonium, hitting the keys with her fingers, and playing, turned her head and followed the position of her hands with her eyes; her chest rose and fell, as if the "musician" was breathing.
In 1774, at an exhibition in Paris, these mechanical people enjoyed a resounding success. Then Henri Jaquet-Droz took them to Spain, where crowds of spectators expressed delight and admiration. But here the Holy Inquisition intervened, accused Dro of witchcraft and imprisoned him, taking away the unique ones he had created …
The creation of father and son Jacquet-Droz passed a difficult path, passing from hand to hand, and many qualified watchmakers and mechanics put their labor and talent on them, restoring and repairing damaged by people and time, until the androids took their place of honor in Switzerland - at the Museum of Fine Arts of the city of Neuchâtel.
Mechanical soldiers
In the 19th century - the century of steam engines and fundamental discoveries - no one in Europe perceived mechanical beings as "devilish offspring". On the contrary, they expected technical innovations from good-looking scientists that would soon change the life of every person, making it easy and carefree. Technical sciences and inventions flourished in Great Britain during the Victorian era.
The Victorian era is commonly referred to as the more than sixty-year period of Queen Victoria's reign of England: from 1838 to 1901. The steady economic growth of the British Empire during this period was accompanied by a flourishing of the arts and sciences. It was then that the country achieved hegemony in industrial development, trade, finance, and maritime transport.
England has become the "industrial workshop of the world", and it is not surprising that its inventors were expected to create a mechanical man. And some adventurers, taking this opportunity, learned to wishful thinking.
For example, back in 1865, a certain Edward Ellis, in his historical (?!) Work "The Huge Hunter, or the Steam Man on the Prairie", told the world about a gifted designer - Johnny Brainerd, who allegedly was the first to build "a man moving in steam".
According to this work, Brainerd was a small hunchback dwarf. He constantly invented different things: toys, miniature steamers and locomotives, wireless telegraph. One fine day, Brainerd got tired of his tiny crafts, he told his mother about this, and she suddenly suggested that he try to make the Steam Man. For several weeks, captivated by a new idea, Johnny could not find a place for himself and after several unsuccessful attempts he still built what he wanted.
Steam Man is more like a steam locomotive in the form of a man:
“This mighty giant was about three meters in height, no horse could compare with him: the giant easily pulled a van with five passengers. Where ordinary people wear a hat, the Steam Man had a chimney that poured thick black smoke.
In a mechanical man, everything, even his face, was made of iron, and his body was painted black. The extraordinary mechanism had a pair of frightened eyes and a huge grinning mouth.
It had a device in its nose, like the whistle of a steam locomotive, through which steam was emitted. Where the man's chest is, he had a steam boiler with a door for tossing into the logs.
His two hands held the pistons, and the soles of his massive long legs were covered with sharp spikes to prevent slipping.
In a knapsack on his back he had valves, and on his neck there were reins, with the help of which the driver controlled the Steam Man, while on the left there was a cord to control the whistle in the nose. Under favorable circumstances, the Steam Man was able to develop a very high speed."
According to eyewitnesses, the first Steam Man could move at a speed of up to 30 miles per hour (about 50 km / h), and a van drawn by this mechanism went almost as steadily as a railway carriage. The only serious drawback was the need to constantly carry a huge amount of firewood with you, because the Steam Man had to “feed” the firebox continuously.
Having become rich and educated, Johnny Brainerd wanted to improve his design, but instead sold the patent to Frank Reed Sr. in 1875. A year later, Reed built an improved version of the Steam Man - the Steam Man Mark II. The second "locomotive man" became half a meter higher (3, 65 meters), received headlights instead of eyes, and the ash from the burnt firewood spilled out onto the ground through special channels in the legs. The Mark II's speed was also significantly higher than that of its predecessor - up to 50 mph (over 80 km / h).
Despite the obvious success of the second Steam Man, Frank Reed Sr., disillusioned with steam engines in general, abandoned this venture and switched to electric models.
However, in February 1876, work began on the Steam Man Mark III: Frank Reed Sr. made a bet with his son, Frank Reed Jr., that it was impossible to significantly improve the second model of the Steam Man.
On May 4, 1879, Reed Jr. demonstrated the Mark III to a small crowd of curious citizens. Louis Senarence, a journalist from New York, became an "accidental" witness of this demonstration. His amazement at the technical curiosity was so great that he became the official biographer of the Reed family.
It seems that Senarence turned out to be not a very conscientious chronicler, because history is silent about which of the Reeds won the bet. But it is known that along with the Steam Man, father and son made a Steam Horse, which surpassed both Marks in speed.
One way or another, but still in the same 1879, both Frank Reeds were irrevocably disillusioned with steam-powered mechanisms and began to work with electricity.
In 1885, the first tests of the Electric Man took place. As you can imagine, today it is already difficult to understand how the Electric Man acted, what his abilities and speed were. In the surviving illustrations, we see that this machine had a rather powerful searchlight, and potential enemies were awaited by "electrical discharges", which the Man fired directly from his eyes! Apparently, the power source was in a closed-mesh van. By analogy with the Steam Horse, the Electric Horse was created.
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The Americans did not lag behind the British. Someone Louis Philippe Peru from Towanada, near Niagara Falls, built the Automatic Man in the late 1890s.
It all started with a small working model about 60 centimeters high. With this model, Peru pounded the doorsteps of wealthy people, hoping to get funding to build a full-size copy.
With his stories, he tried to strike the imagination of "moneybags": a walking robot will pass where not a single wheeled vehicle will pass, a combat walking machine could make soldiers invulnerable, and so on and so forth.
In the end, Peru managed to persuade businessman Charles Thomas, with whom they founded the United States Automaton Company.
The work was carried out in an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, and only when everything was completely ready, Peryu decided to present his creation to the public. The development was completed in the early summer of 1900, and in October of the same year it was presented to the press, who immediately nicknamed Peru Frankenstein of Tonawanda:
Automatic Man was 7 feet 5 inches (2.25 meters) high. He was dressed in a white suit, giant shoes and a matching hat - Peryu tried to achieve maximum resemblance and, according to eyewitnesses, the hands of the machine looked the most realistic. The Human Skin was made of aluminum for lightness, and the entire figure was supported by a steel structure.
A rechargeable battery served as a power source. The operator sat in the back of the van, which was connected to the Automatic Man by a small metal tube.
The Human Demonstration took place in the large Tonawanda Exhibition Hall. The first movements of the robot disappointed the audience: the steps were jerky, accompanied by crackling and noise.
However, when Peru's invention was "developed", the course became smooth and practically silent.
The inventor of the human machine reported that the robot could walk at a fairly fast pace for an almost unlimited amount of time, but the figure spoke for itself:
She declared in a deep voice. The sound came from a device hidden on the Man's chest.
After the car, pulling the light van, made several circles around the hall, the inventor put a log in its path. The robot stopped, squinted at the obstacle, as if pondering the situation, and walked around the side of the log.
Peru stated that Automatic Man can travel 480 miles (772 km) per day, traveling at an average speed of 20 miles per hour (32 km / h).
It is clear that in the Victorian era it was impossible to build a full-fledged android robot and the mechanisms described above were just clockwork toys designed to influence the gullible public - but the idea itself lived and developed …
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When the famous American writer Isaac Asimov formulated three laws of robotics, the essence of which was an unconditional prohibition on causing any harm by a robot to a person, he probably did not even realize that long before that, the first robot soldier had already appeared in America. This robot was called the Boilerplate and was created in the 1880s by Professor Archie Campion.
Campion was born on November 27, 1862, and from childhood was a very curious and eager to learn boy. When Archie's sister's husband was killed in the Korean War in 1871, the young man was shocked. It is believed that it was then that Campion set himself the goal of finding a way to resolve conflicts without killing people.
Archie's father, Robert Campion, ran the first company in Chicago to manufacture computers, which undoubtedly influenced the future inventor.
In 1878, the young man got a job, becoming an operator of the Chicago Telephone Company, where he gained experience as a technician. Archie's talents ultimately brought him a good and stable income - in 1882 he received many patents for his inventions, from flap pipelines to multistage electrical systems. Over the next three years, patent royalties made Archie Campion a millionaire. It was with these millions in his pocket that in 1886 the inventor suddenly turned into a recluse - he built a small laboratory in Chicago and started work on his robot.
From 1888 to 1893, nothing was heard about Campion, until he suddenly announced himself at the International Colombian Exhibition, where he presented his robot named Boilerplate.
Despite a wide advertising campaign, very few materials about the inventor and his robot have survived. We have already noted that the Boilerplate was conceived as a bloodless conflict resolution tool - in other words, it was a prototype of a mechanical soldier.
Although the robot existed in a single copy, it had the opportunity to carry out the proposed function - the Boilerplate repeatedly participated in hostilities.
True, the wars were preceded by a trip to Antarctica in 1894 on a sailing ship. They wanted to test the robot in an aggressive environment, but the expedition did not make it to the South Pole - the sailboat got stuck in the ice and had to return.
When the United States declared war on Spain in 1898, Archie Campion saw an opportunity to demonstrate the fighting ability of his creation in practice. Knowing that Theodore Roosevelt was not indifferent to new technologies, Campion persuaded him to enroll the robot in a squad of volunteers.
On June 24, 1898, a mechanical soldier took part in battle for the first time, turning the enemy to flight during the attack. Boilerplate went through the entire war until the signing of a peace treaty in Paris on December 10, 1898.
Since 1916 in Mexico, the robot has participated in the campaign against Pancho Villa. An eyewitness account of those events, Modesto Nevarez, has survived:
In 1918, during the First World War, the Boilerplate was sent behind enemy lines on a special reconnaissance mission. He did not return from the assignment, no one saw him again.
It is clear that, most likely, the Boilerplate was just an expensive toy or even a fake, but it was he who was destined to become the first in a long line of vehicles that should replace a soldier on the battlefield …
World War II robots
The idea to create a combat vehicle controlled from a distance by radio arose at the very beginning of the 20th century and was implemented by the French inventor Schneider, who created a prototype of a mine exploded with a radio signal.
In 1915, exploding boats, designed by Dr. Siemens, entered the German fleet. Some of the boats were controlled by electric wires about 20 miles long, and some by radio. The operator controlled boats from the shore or from a seaplane. The biggest success of the RC boats was the attack on the British Erebus monitor on October 28, 1917. The monitor was badly damaged, but was able to return to the port.
At the same time, the British were experimenting with the creation of remote-controlled torpedo aircraft, which were to be guided by radio to an enemy ship. In 1917, in the city of Farnborough, with a large crowd of people, an airplane was shown, which was controlled by radio. However, the control system failed and the plane crashed alongside a crowd of spectators. Fortunately, no one was hurt. After that, work on a similar technology in England died down - to resume in Soviet Russia …
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On August 9, 1921, the former nobleman Bekauri received a mandate from the Council of Labor and Defense, signed by Lenin:
Having enlisted the support of the Soviet regime, Bekauri created his own institute - the "Special Technical Bureau for Special-Purpose Military Inventions" (Ostekhbyuro). It was here that the first Soviet battlefield robots were to be created.
On August 18, 1921, Bekauri issued order No. 2, according to which six departments were formed in Ostekhbyuro: special, aviation, diving, explosives, separate electromechanical and experimental research.
On December 8, 1922, the Krasny Pilotchik plant handed over aircraft No. 4 "Handley Page" for Ostechbyuro's experiments - this is how the Ostechbyuro air squadron began to be created.
A heavy aircraft was required to create the Bekauri remote-controlled aircraft. At first, he wanted to order it in England, but the order fell through, and in November 1924 aircraft designer Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev took up this project. At this time, the Tupolev bureau was working on a heavy bomber "ANT-4" ("TB-1"). A similar project was envisaged for the TB-3 (ANT-6) aircraft.
The telemechanical system "Daedalus" was created for the "TB-1" robot plane at Ostekhbyuro. Raising a telemechanical aircraft into the air was a difficult task, and therefore TB-1 took off with a pilot. A few tens of kilometers from the target, the pilot was thrown out with a parachute. Further, the plane was controlled by radio from the "leading" TB-1. When the remote-controlled bomber reached the target, a dive signal was sent from the lead vehicle. Such aircraft were planned to be put into service in 1935.
A little later Ostekhbyuro started designing a four-engine remote-controlled bomber "TB-3". The new bomber took off and marching with a pilot, but when approaching the target, the pilot was not thrown out with a parachute, but transferred to the I-15 or I-16 fighter suspended from the TB-3 and returned home on it. These bombers were supposed to be put into service in 1936.
When testing "TB-3" the main problem was the lack of reliable operation of the automation. The designers tried many different designs: pneumatic, hydraulic and electromechanical. For example, in July 1934, an aircraft with an AVP-3 autopilot was tested in Monino, and in October of the same year - with an AVP-7 autopilot. But until 1937, not a single more or less acceptable control device was developed. As a result, on January 25, 1938, the topic was closed, the Ostechbyuro was dispersed, and the three bombers used for testing were taken away.
However, work on remote-controlled aircraft continued after the dispersal of Ostekhbyuro. So, on January 26, 1940, the Labor and Defense Council issued a decree No. 42 on the production of telemechanical aircraft, which put forward requirements for the creation of telemechanical aircraft with takeoff without landing "TB-3" by July 15, telemechanical aircraft with takeoff and landing "TB-3 "By October 15, command aircraft" SB "by August 25 and" DB-3 "- by November 25.
In 1942, even military tests of the Torpedo remote-controlled aircraft, created on the basis of the TB-3 bomber, took place. The plane was loaded with 4 tons of high-impact explosives. Guidance was carried out by radio from a DB-ZF aircraft.
This plane was supposed to hit the railway junction in Vyazma, occupied by the Germans. However, when approaching the target, the antenna of the DB-ZF transmitter failed, control of the Torpedo aircraft was lost, and it fell somewhere beyond Vyazma.
The second pair of "Torpedo" and the control plane "SB" in the same 1942 burned down at the airfield in an explosion of ammunition in a nearby bomber …
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After a relatively short period of success in World War II, by the beginning of 1942, the German military aviation (Luftwaffe) fell on hard times. The Battle of England was lost, and in the failed blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, thousands of pilots and a huge number of aircraft were lost. The immediate prospects did not bode well either - the production capacities of the aviation industry of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition were many times greater than the capabilities of German aviation firms, whose factories, moreover, were increasingly subjected to devastating raids by enemy aircraft.
The Luftwaffe command saw the only way out of this situation in the development of fundamentally new weapons systems. In the order of one of the leaders of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Milch, dated December 10, 1942, it says:
In accordance with this program, priority was given to the development of jet aircraft, as well as aircraft with remote control "FZG-76".
The projectile designed by the German engineer Fritz Glossau, which went down in history under the name "V-1" ("V-1"), from June 1942 was developed by the company "Fisseler", which had previously produced several quite acceptable unmanned aerial vehicles -targets for training calculations of anti-aircraft guns. In order to ensure the secrecy of work on the projectile, it was also called an anti-aircraft artillery target - Flakzielgerat or FZG for short. There was also an in-house designation "Fi-103", and the code designation "Kirschkern" - "Cherry bone" was used in secret correspondence.
The main novelty of the projectile aircraft was a pulsating jet engine, developed in the late 1930s by German aerodynamicist Paul Schmidt on the basis of a scheme proposed back in 1913 by the French designer Lorin. The industrial prototype of this As109-014 engine was created by the Argus company in 1938.
Technically, the Fi-103 projectile was an exact copy of a naval torpedo. After launching the projectile, he flew using the autopilot at a given course and at a predetermined altitude.
"Fi-103" had a fuselage length of 7, 8 meters, in the bow of which was placed a warhead with a ton of amatol. A fuel tank with gasoline was located behind the warhead. Then came two spherical steel cylinders of compressed air braided with wire to ensure the operation of rudders and other mechanisms. The tail section was occupied by a simplified autopilot, which kept the projectile on a straight course and at a given altitude. The wingspan was 530 centimeters.
Returning one day from the Fuehrer's headquarters, Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels published the following ominous statement in the Volkischer Beobachter:
In early June 1944, a report was received in London that German guided shells had been delivered to the French coast of the English Channel. British pilots reported that a lot of enemy activity was noticed around the two structures, which resembled skis. On the evening of June 12, German long-range guns began shelling British territory across the English Channel, probably in order to divert the attention of the British from preparing for the launch of shells. At 4 am the shelling stopped. A few minutes later, a strange "plane" was seen over the observation post in Kent, making a sharp whistling sound and emitting a bright light from the tail. Eighteen minutes later, the "plane" with a deafening explosion fell to the ground in Swanscoma, near Gravesend. Over the next hour, three more such "planes" fell at Cuckfield, Bethnal Green and Platt. Explosions in Bethnal Green killed six and injured nine. In addition, the railway bridge was destroyed.
During the war, 8070 (according to other sources - 9017) V-1 projectiles were fired across England. Of this number, 7488 pieces were noticed by the surveillance service, and 2420 (according to other sources - 2340) reached the target area. British air defense fighters destroyed 1847 "V-1", shooting them with onboard weapons or knocking down a wake. Anti-aircraft artillery destroyed 1,878 shells. 232 shells crashed on barrage balloons. In general, almost 53% of all V-1 projectiles fired at London were shot down, and only 32% (according to other sources - 25, 9%) of the projectiles broke through to the target area.
But even with this number of aircraft-shells, the Germans inflicted great damage on England. 24,491 residential buildings were destroyed, 52,293 buildings became uninhabitable. 5 864 people were killed, 17 197 were seriously injured.
The last V-1 projectile launched from French soil fell on England on September 1, 1944. Anglo-American forces, having landed in France, destroyed the launchers.
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In the early 1930s, the reorganization and rearmament of the Red Army began. One of the most active supporters of these transformations, designed to make the workers 'and peasants' battalions the most powerful military units in the world, was the "red marshal" Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky. He saw the modern army as countless armadas of light and heavy tanks, supported by long-range chemical artillery and superhigh bomber aircraft. Seeking all kinds of inventive novelties that could change the nature of the war, giving the Red Army an obvious advantage, Tukhachevsky could not help but support the work on the creation of remotely controlled robotic tanks, which were carried out by Vladimir Bekauri's Ostekhbyuro, and later at the Institute of Telemechanics (full name - All-Union State Institute Telemechanics and Communications, VGITiS).
The first Soviet remote-controlled tank was the captured French Renault tank. A series of his tests took place in 1929-30, but at the same time he was controlled not by radio, but by cable. However, a year later a tank of a domestic design - "MS-1" ("T-18") was tested. It was controlled by radio and, moving at a speed of up to 4 km / h, carried out the commands "forward", "right", "left" and "stop".
In the spring of 1932, the “Most-1” telecontrol equipment (later “Reka-1” and “Reka-2”) was equipped with a two-turret T-26 tank. The tests of this tank were carried out in April at the Moscow Chemical Polygon. Based on their results, the production of four teletanks and two control tanks was ordered. The new control equipment, manufactured by the staff of the Ostechbyuro, made it possible to execute already 16 commands.
In the summer of 1932, a special tank detachment No. 4 was formed in the Leningrad Military District, the main task of which was to study the combat capabilities of remotely controlled tanks. The tanks arrived at the detachment's location only at the end of 1932, and in January 1933 in the area of Krasnoe Selo they began testing them on the ground.
In 1933, a remote-controlled tank under the designation "TT-18" (a modification of the "T-18" tank) was tested with control equipment located in the driver's seat. This tank could also carry out 16 commands: turn, change speed, stop, start moving again, detonate a high-explosive charge, put a smoke screen or release toxic substances. The range of action "TT-18" was no more than a few hundred meters. At least seven standard tanks were converted into "TT-18", but this system never entered service.
A new stage in the development of remotely controlled tanks began in 1934.
The TT-26 teletank was developed under the "Titan" code. 55 cars of this series were produced. The TT-26 teletanks were controlled from a conventional T-26 tank.
On the chassis of the "T-26" tank in 1938, the "TT-TU" tank was created - a telemechanical tank that approached the enemy's fortifications and dropped an explosive charge.
On the basis of the high-speed tank "BT-7" in 1938-39, the remote-controlled tank "A-7" was created. The teletank was armed with a machine gun of the Silin system and devices for the release of a toxic substance "KS-60" manufactured by the "Compressor" plant. The substance itself was placed in two tanks - it should have been enough to guarantee the contamination of an area of 7200 square meters. In addition, the teletank could set up a smoke screen with a length of 300-400 meters. And, finally, a mine was installed on the tank, containing a kilogram of TNT, so that in case of falling into the hands of the enemy, it would be possible to destroy this secret weapon.
The control operator was located on the BT-7 linear tank with standard armament and could send 17 commands to the teletank. The control range of the tank on level ground reached 4 kilometers, the time of continuous control was from 4 to 6 hours.
Tests of the A-7 tank at the test site revealed many design flaws, ranging from numerous failures of the control system to the complete uselessness of the Silin machine gun.
Teletanks were also developed on the basis of other machines. So, it was supposed to convert the tankette "T-27" into a teletank. The Veter telemechanical tank was designed on the basis of the T-37A amphibious tank and the breakthrough telemechanical tank based on the huge five-tower T-35.
After the abolition of Ostekhbyuro, NII-20 took over the design of teletanks. Its employees created the T-38-TT telemechanical tankette. The teletanket was armed with a DT machine gun in the turret and a KS-61-T flamethrower, and was also supplied with a 45-liter chemical tank and equipment for setting up a smoke screen. The control tankette with a crew of two had the same armament, but with more ammunition.
The teletanket carried out the following commands: starting the engine, increasing engine speed, turning right and left, switching speeds, turning on the brakes, stopping the tankette, preparing for firing a machine gun, shooting, flamethrowing, preparing for an explosion, explosion, retarding preparation. However, the range of the teletanket did not exceed 2500 meters. As a result, they released an experimental series of T-38-TT teletankets, but they were not accepted into service.
Baptism of fire Soviet teletanks took place on February 28, 1940 in the Vyborg region during the Winter War with Finland. TT-26 teletanks were launched in front of the advancing line tanks. However, all of them got stuck in shell craters and were shot by Finnish anti-tank guns almost point-blank.
This sad experience forced the Soviet command to reconsider its attitude towards remotely controlled tanks, and in the end it abandoned the idea of their mass production and use.
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The enemy obviously did not have such experience, and therefore during the Second World War the Germans repeatedly tried to use tanks and wedges, controlled by wire and radio.
On the fronts appeared: a light tank "Goliath" ("B-I") weighing 870 kilograms, a medium tank "Springer" (Sd. Kfz.304) weighing 2.4 tons, as well as "B-IV" (Sd. Kfz. 301) weighing from 4.5 to 6 tons.
Since 1940, the development of remote-controlled tanks has been carried out by the German company Borgward. From 1942 to 1944, the company produced the B-IV tank under the name “Sd. Kfz.301 Heavy Charge Carrier”. It was the first vehicle of its kind to be serially supplied to the Wehrmacht. The wedge served as a remotely controlled carrier of explosives or warheads. In its bow, an explosive charge weighing half a ton was placed, which was dropped by radio command. After dropping, the tankette returned to the tank from which the control was carried out. The operator could transmit ten commands to the teletank at a distance of up to four kilometers. About a thousand copies of this machine were produced.
Since 1942, various options for the design of the "B-IV" have been considered. In general, the use of these teletanks by the Germans was not very successful. By the end of the war, the Wehrmacht officers finally realized this, and with the "B-IV" they began to throw away the telecontrol equipment, instead putting two tankers with a recoilless cannon behind the armor - in this capacity, the "B-IV" could really pose a threat to medium and heavy enemy tanks.
The "Light carrier of charges Sd. Kfz.302" under the name "Goliath" became much more widespread and famous. This small tank, only 610 millimeters high, developed by the Borgward company, was equipped with two electric motors on batteries and was controlled by radio. He carried an explosive charge weighing 90.7 kilograms. A later modification of the "Goliath" was re-equipped to run on a gasoline engine and control by wire. In this form, this device in the summer of 1943 went into a large series. Subsequent model "Goliath" as a special machine "Sd. Kfz.303" had a two-cylinder two-stroke engine with air cooling and was controlled by an unwound heavy field cable. All this "toy" had dimensions of 1600x660x670 millimeters, moved at a speed of 6 to 10 km / h and weighed only 350 kilograms. The device could carry 100 kilograms of cargo, its task was to clear mines and remove blockages on the roads in the combat zone. Before the end of the war, according to preliminary estimates, about 5,000 units of this small teletank were manufactured. The Goliath was the main weapon in at least six sapper companies of the tank forces.
These miniature machines were widely known to the public after they were referred to for propaganda purposes as "the secret weapon of the Third Reich" in the last years of the war. For example, here is what the Soviet press wrote about Goliath in 1944:
“On the Soviet-German front, the Germans used a torpedo tankette, mainly designed to fight our tanks. This self-propelled torpedo carries an explosive charge, which explodes by closing the current at the moment of contact with the tank.
The torpedo is controlled from a remote point, which is connected to it with a wire from 250 m to 1 km long. This wire is wound on a spool located in the stern of the wedge. As the wedge moves away from the point, the wire unwinds from the coil.
While moving on the battlefield, the wedge can change direction. This is achieved by alternately switching between the right and left motors, which are powered by batteries.
Our troops quickly recognized numerous vulnerable torpedo parts and the latter were immediately subjected to mass destruction.
Tankmen and artillerymen did not have much trouble shooting them from afar. When a projectile hit, the wedge just flew up into the air - it, so to speak, “self-destructed” with the help of its own explosive charge.
The wedge was easily disabled by an armor-piercing bullet, as well as machine gun and rifle fire. In such cases, the bullets hit the front and side of the tankette and pierced its caterpillar. Sometimes the soldiers simply cut the wire running behind the torpedo and the blind beast became completely harmless …"
And finally, there was “Medium charge carrier Sd. Kfz. 304 (Springer), which was developed in 1944 at the Neckarsulm United Vehicle Manufacturing Plant using parts of a tracked motorcycle. The device was designed to carry a payload of 300 kilograms. This model was supposed to be produced in 1945 in a large series, but until the end of the war, only a few copies of the car were made …
NATO mechanized army
The first law of robotics, invented by the American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, stated that a robot should never harm a person under any circumstances. Now they prefer not to remember this rule. After all, when it comes to government orders, the potential danger of killer robots seems to be something frivolous.
Called Future Combat Systems (FSC), the Pentagon has been working on a program since May 2000. According to official information, "The challenge is to create unmanned vehicles that can do everything that needs to be done on the battlefield: attack, defend and find targets."
That is, the concept is outrageously simple: one robot detects a target, reports it to the command post, and another robot (or missile) destroys the target.
Three competing consortiums, Boeing, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, were competing for the role of general contractor, which are offering their solutions for this Pentagon project with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the latest data, Lockheed-Martin Corporation became the winner of the competition.
The US military believes that the first generation of combat robots will be ready for warfare on the ground and in the air in the next 10 years, and Kendel Peace, a spokesman for General Dynamics, is even more optimistic:
In other words, by 2010! One way or another, the deadline for the adoption of the army of robots is set for 2025.
Future Combat Systems is a whole system that includes well-known unmanned aerial vehicles (such as the Predator used in Afghanistan), autonomous tanks, and ground reconnaissance armored personnel carriers. All this equipment is supposed to be controlled remotely - simply from a shelter, wirelessly or from satellites. The requirements for FSC are clear. Reusability, versatility, combat power, speed, security, compactness, maneuverability, and in some cases - the ability to choose a solution from a set of options included in the program.
Some of these vehicles are planned to be equipped with laser and microwave weapons.
We are not talking about creating soldier robots yet. For some reason, this interesting topic is not touched upon at all in the Pentagon's materials on FCS. There is also no mention of such a structure of the US Navy as the SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command) center, which has very interesting developments in this area.
SPAWAR specialists have long been developing remote-controlled vehicles for reconnaissance and guidance, reconnaissance "flying saucer", network sensor systems and rapid detection and response systems, and, finally, a series of autonomous robots "ROBART".
The last representative of this family - "ROBART III" - is still in the development stage. And this is, in fact, a real robot soldier with a machine gun.
The "ancestors" of the combat robot (respectively "ROBART - I-II") were intended to guard military warehouses - that is, they were only able to detect the intruder and raise the alarm, while the prototype "ROBART III" is equipped with weapons. While this is a pneumatic prototype of a machine gun that shoots balls and arrows, but the robot already has an automatic guidance system; he himself finds the target and fires his ammunition into it at a speed of six shots in one and a half seconds.
However, FCS is not the only program of the US Department of Defense. There is also the "JPR" ("Joint Robotics Program"), which the Pentagon has been implementing since September 2000. The description of this program directly says: "military robotic systems in the XXI century will be used everywhere."
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The Pentagon is not the only organization dedicated to the creation of killer robots. It turns out that quite civilian departments are interested in the production of mechanical monsters.
According to Reuters, British University scientists have created a prototype SlugBot robot capable of tracking down and destroying living beings. In the press he has already been nicknamed "the terminator". While the robot is programmed to search for slugs. Caught it recycles and thus produces electricity. It is the world's first active robot whose task is to kill and devour its victims.
"SlugBot" goes hunting after dark, when slugs are most active, and can kill more than 100 mollusks in an hour. Thus, scientists came to the aid of English gardeners and farmers, for whom slugs have annoyed for many centuries, destroying the plants they grow.
The robot, about 60 centimeters high, finds the victim using infrared sensors. Scientists claim that "SlugBot" accurately identifies pests by infrared wavelengths and can distinguish slugs from worms or snails.
The "SlugBot" moves on four wheels and grabs the mollusks with its "long arm": it can rotate it 360 degrees and overtake the victim at a distance of 2 meters in any direction. The robot puts the caught slugs into a special pallet.
After a night hunt, the robot returns "home" and unloads: the slugs enter a special tank, where fermentation takes place, as a result of which the slugs are converted into electricity. The robot uses the received energy to charge its own batteries, after which the hunt continues.
Despite the fact that "Time" magazine called "SlugBot" one of the best inventions of 2001, critics fell on the creators of the "killer" robot. So, one of the readers of the magazine in his open letter called the invention "reckless":
In contrast, gardeners and farmers welcome the invention. They believe that its use will help to gradually reduce the amount of harmful pesticides used on farmland. It is estimated that British farmers spend an average of $ 30 million a year on slug control.
In three to four years, the first "terminator" can be prepared for industrial production. The prototype "SlugBot" costs about three thousand dollars, but the inventors argue that once the robot is on the market, the price will drop.
Today it is already clear that scientists at the British University will not stop at the destruction of slugs, and in the future we can expect the emergence of a robot that kills, say, rats. And here it is already not far from a man …
