Small reconnaissance unmanned ground vehicle(UGV)has good portability, concealing and flexibility, it has broad application prospects in military and civilian fields. Especially in the confined space and environment such as indoor or damaged buildings, the tasks of map building, person detection, weapon attack and others can be performed by it, which is a multifunctional unmanned combat platform. The research status and application situation of UGV at home and abroad was discussed, the technology level of this field at home and abroad was compared, and the domestic gap compared to foreign was analyzed. Finally, throught analyzing the application requirements, functional characteristics and development tendency, the key technical problems and research fields of the UGV were explored, and the development direction was obtained.