Military robots and their impact on the wars of different countries in 2021
The increasing use of military robots by armies has posed an important question. Should software be developed that only follows human commands or intelligent technology that can do things independently? Each system has its own issues.
Military robots
It has been more than 20 years since the signing of the PackBot development contract. A tactical robot capable of carrying out various operations was one of the first search pact operations in the remnants of the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. In 2002, US forces used them to deal with roadside mines. The current model, 510, which has controllers similar to game consoles, enables the operator to move 15 kg of roadside mines to another location.
According to leaked US military contracts, the government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on each of these robots (Model 510). Aside from Pekbat, the military is now one of the largest investors and users of artificial intelligence technology, which looks set to lead to better weapons systems.
A case in point is a project that has been under development in the US Army Research Laboratory for the past decade. Collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, and the Boston Dynamics Robotics Division has led to the creation of software that enables robots to perform tasks based solely on verbal instructions.
Future robots will be controlled by a tablet, and the use of “deep learning” will enable them not only to move ahead of other forces to identify roadside mines and traps, but also with complete information about the intended targets. To return. In an interview with the MIT Technology Review in November, project manager Stuart Young compared the technology to military dogs “in terms of cooperation and closeness to humans.”
But unlike a dog, the software will be equipped with question and answer capabilities to be able to cope with the many ambiguous situations that occur to him on the battlefield. For example, if a robot is told to approach a building, it may ask, “Do you mean the building on the right or the left?”
Decision-making robots are the latest technology in the field of intelligent robots
The technology mentioned so far falls into the category of obedient robots. The software is designed to follow human instructions. In fact, they are largely a continuation of the Pekbat way. However, when it comes to the future of military robots, the intelligent and independent robot sector attracts the most attention.
Last year, information was leaked about a secret US Marine Corps project called “Sea Rumble.” Prototypes of the product were reportedly performed on US reservoirs equipped with artificial intelligence off the coast of Virginia. Although the Marine Corps has made every effort to prevent any further information from being leaked, the murmur is said to be the first step in the development of independent naval equipment capable of conducting operations without human intervention.
The US Navy is also testing the “Sea Hunter”, a ship that can detect and attack enemy submarines without receiving any information from the command center.
In 2018, across the ocean, he unveiled his plan to replace the Royal Air Force’s Typhoon fighters with Tempst fighters.
The British Ministry of Defense has announced that Tempst will be equipped with artificial intelligence and machine learning so that it can fly without the need for a pilot and attack targets. They will also be equipped with guided energy weapons (a system that delivers energy to the target without the use of a projectile) to operate alongside the Wingman Semi-independent drone. The technology is expected to be operational between 2031 and 2039.
No to killer robots, is it morally right to use independent weapons on the battlefield?
However, not everyone is optimistic about the use of artificial intelligence in military weapons, which is why the International Committee for the Control of Military Robots has been formed. The committee, overseen by Human Rights Watch, is working to multilaterally ban the use of lethal independent weapons systems.
The discussion of the International Committee for the Control of Military Robots has three aspects. First of all, the group says it is impossible to ensure that independent military weapons respect human rights, especially when a distinction must be made between fighters and citizens. The second part is about the fact that machines have moral limitations, especially since they are incapable of understanding the various laws, let alone making the decision to end a human life.
Third, the Committee is concerned that these weapons may have a detrimental effect on global security, especially when used by individuals who are not accountable for non-compliance with the framework for the use of military force.
Lucy Sachman, a professor of anthropology at Lancaster University who is also a member of the committee, believes that: It becomes human. The aim of this campaign is to design weapons that will not be able to carry out operations without meaningful human control. “This means that independent lethal weapons will be considered illegal.”
Sachman, however, said he had no problem with obedient remote-controlled technology as long as he “could not do it alone.”
Other concerns: Software bugs and risk of being hacked
Aside from being an intelligent or obedient robot, there are other issues with the use of artificial intelligence in the military.
So far, there is little evidence that systems that use artificial intelligence have appeared flawless. For example, devices equipped with speech recognition technologies such as Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa often make mistakes when hearing or understanding commands. But the consequences of such mistakes at home are not comparable to those that may occur on the battlefield.
With the advent of cyber warfare, there are concerns about what would happen if a military robot were hacked. Is it possible that robots designed to reduce the number of soldiers on the battlefield and consequently reduce casualties have the opposite effect and only increase the conflict?
The US military experts said that in the future, several intelligent robots will be sent along with US troops on dangerous missions, which will help the soldiers in various ways, including inspecting dangerous areas. According to military robotics experts, these future US Army soldiers will play a key role in the operation and, in addition to participating in dangerous operations such as demining and demining, will assist US troops in imaging sensitive areas, carrying military backpacks, finding corpses and other dangerous tasks. کرد.
According to Willie Smith, commander of the mechanical vehicle unit at Fort Georgia, USA, the robots greatly increase the combat capability of the troops and allow them to better communicate with their surroundings, and in this regard, the military greatly Will help. Recently, the US military has conducted research and experiments on several types of intelligent robots that are able to move in water, sand and impassable mountainous areas, so that these types of robots can serve the army as soon as possible.
Some of the new generation of US Army robots are capable of carrying a payload of 100 kg on foot, while others are designed to carry wounded in difficult operations.
Experts predict that in the not-too-distant future, every US military will be accompanied by one to five robots in operations. According to these experts, by 2023, 10 robots will be deployed in the US Army for each military, which in addition to assisting the US military, will also be responsible for protecting their lives.
For example, the HDT robot is able to aim at a target at a distance of 150 meters using a M240 weapon with high accuracy. The tensile strength of this robot is able to carry more than half a ton of cargo and can continue to operate even on slopes of 45 degrees. The propulsion engine of this robot is JP8 diesel and it has 32 horsepower. With this power, this war machine can easily carry minesweepers, bombers, communication tools and, of course, heavy and semi-heavy weapons, which makes it a multi-purpose robot with high maneuverability.
It is also possible to control this robot wirelessly by means of a batch with a range of 1 km. Also, by using the automatic propulsion capability, the operator can leave the control of speed and direction to the robot and focus its attention on firepower.
This robot can also be easily opened into 4 separate components, which of course requires the power of 4 people to carry each component. Of course, as you know, this is not the only military robotics product, you probably know about DARPA’s $ 10 million investment in Boston Dynamics and robotic exoskeletons for soldiers.
Developed by researchers at the US Army Research and Development Laboratory and the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, the interface (JUDI) is designed to reduce the cost of training and teamwork between soldiers and robots. For more on JUDI, stay tuned to the Magazine of Power and Wearable Technologies.
As the role of robots in the military becomes more prominent, their control becomes more important. Until recently, remote controls such as controllers, keyboards, mice, and remote controls were largely appropriate. But the next generation of military robots will be significantly smarter by far.
As robots become more intelligent, the use of sensors and remote control devices in them decreases and the number of teammates that soldiers have to interact with increases.
The JUDI system has been developed to modernize equipment and improve military performance. Bilateral interactions between soldiers and robots help them perform their tasks better.
Differences between a JUDI system and a digital assistant
This system may look like digital assistants like Siri or Alexa, but there are many differences between them. The digital assistants that many people use on a daily basis are relatively passive and have a cloud-based functionality that enables the system to analyze hundreds of millions of human language instances using in-depth learning to understand what a person is saying. Do the right thing. But the JUDI system works in different contexts and goals.
In fact, a military system can not rely on cloud connections or large databases located remotely. Instead, the JUDI system uses a permanent database to interpret a soldier’s intentions, according to him. Speech processing uses a statistical classification method that is trained from small parts of a human-robot conversation.
Another difference between military systems and digital home assistants is that these assistants are primarily designed to perform very simple tasks such as retrieving information, sending purchase orders, and controlling smart home devices. Mistakes in doing such things are tolerable. But this is quite different with military robots, and the slightest mistake can lead to death.
JUDI Awareness of the environment
Because of needs at this level, systems such as JUDI must not only be able to control robots accurately, but also have a high level of awareness to assess their environment. These systems need to receive more information from their human teammates to correct incomplete and ambiguous data. For this reason, JUDI can be trained using hundreds of prototypes and used to do a specific task.
The goal of the current program is to assess JUDI’s ability to deploy autonomous robots for maneuvering and field research in September 2020.