An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is a vehicle that operates while in contact with the ground and without an onboard human presence. UGVs can be used for many applications where it may be inconvenient, dangerous, or impossible to have a human operator present. Generally, the vehicle will have a set of sensors to observe the environment, and will either autonomously make decisions about its behavior or pass the information to a human operator at a different location who will control the vehicle through teleportation.

Global unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) market was valued at 1810 Million US$ in 2018 and is projected to reach 3171 Million US$ by 2024, at a CAGR of 9.8% during the forecast period. Factors, such as the need for increasing operational efficiency, reduced human intervention, and growth in terrorist activities around the world are expected to drive the unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) market.

Unmanned ground vehicles are an integral part of automation that includes industrial automation as well automation in defense and security applications. They come in different in shape, and varying payload capacity, providing logistics supports, negotiating tough terrain for surveillance mission in military operations to ferrying materials, and lifting goods and sorting within factory workplace. In commercial markets, both emerging and established businesses are getting heavily dependent on automation to maintain quality and quantity of their products and retain their share in the global market. On the other hand, adoption of automation in defense and security application, will help save precious human life and reduce overall risk of the mission. The demand for unmanned ground vehicles is relatively high across North American and European regions while the Asian countries are rapidly incorporating unmanned ground vehicles into their industries and armed forces to maintain their edge both in global market and in geopolitics.
The Asia-Pacific unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) market is projected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. Countries in this region, such as India and China, have increased their defense budgets and are investing in the development and procurement of advanced systems for military operations. Advancements in manufacturing capabilities of the emerging economies in this region will drive growth of unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) market in the commercial sector.

Key players in global unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) market include: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Bae Systems, General Dynamics, Horiba Mira, Oshkosh Defense, Irobot, Qinetiq Group, Cobham, Nexter Group, Dok-Ing, ICOR Technology, Aselsan, Autonomous Solutions etc.