In our recent article, we mentioned the fact that due to the earthquakes in Turkey, equipment of defense industry companies and Units of the 1st Army from North Thrace are being transported one by one to the affected areas.
Among the mentioned equipment of the Turkish defense companies are some communication systems, various excavation machines and special sensor systems, as well as the UGV BARKAN
The BARKAN unmanned ground vehicle, developed by HAVELSAN, was sent to the earthquake zone.
The unmanned ground vehicle (Ugv) Barkan
HAVELSAN's unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), Barkan, which will play a role in joint robotic operations with other unmanned platforms will advance the vision of HAVELSAN's "digital army" concept, said a related article, which continuing states the following:
HAVELSAN has been conducting research and development (R&D) studies in robotics and autonomous technologies since 2019.
Muhittin Solmaz, the company's Deputy General Manager, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that they have started working on unmanned aerial and ground vehicles under the umbrella of robotic autonomous systems.
He said they want to increase the effectiveness of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in the field and support their resources by planning missions with unmanned air and ground vehicles and unmanned sea vehicles in the future when needed.
"The Barkan has been developed as a first level mid-range UGV and will be able to work with the under-the-cloud UAV called Baha or with other drones," he said. "We have arrived at a structure where they can share tasks and work together in a herd."
The company previously developed two UGV prototypes, Solmaz said, while the Barkan has passed several tests so far. After the field trials at Barkan, he added, there will definitely be some modifications to the vehicles as per the feedback from the field.
This particular UGV was developed to conduct armed reconnaissance and surveillance and support forces on the battlefield.
He said they have also incorporated a remote-controlled weapon system into the vehicle, which provides the operator via the remote control the ability to see all around.
The very first field test of KAPGAN was recently conducted in Samsuda with the deployment of 12.7mm heavy machine gun on it. KAPGAN successfully hit the target. Two separate tests were carried out both at night and during the day, during these tests KAPGAN was able to identify its surroundings and find its own way in the difficult conditions of an uneven terrain.
To increase the communication range of KAPGAN, which is now 5 km, HAVELSAN continues its development activities on topics such as autonomous capability, swarm algorithms, various types of signals of opportunity and visual navigation in case of GPS loss.
From the above we understand that the Turks will use the UGV KARGAN in the earthquake affected areas, in search and rescue missions.
In this way, they will examine its operational performance in an urban environment, which simulates an analogous urban environment in a war conflict.
Commonly, the Turks are testing in damaged urban environment, UGV (unmanned ground vehicle) to create results for both peace and war missions.
