The U.S. Army is testing AI technology and robotics and integrating it with ground and aerial vehicles to enhance maneuver, situational awareness, and operational effectiveness via tablets that are accessible to platoon leaders.
The United States military has long been at the forefront of developing and integrating the latest technology into national defense – often spurring innovation that eventually reaches everyday life. Given how critical intelligence gathering, decisive decision-making, and logistics are in preventing and winning conflict, the U.S. military is testing ways AI can enhance its operations.
Giving Soldiers an Advantage
Army scientists and engineers tested advanced artificial intelligence and robotics technologies integrated on ground and aerial vehicles this past fall. The experiment used robotic systems integrated with an infantry platoon to enhance maneuvers, situational awareness, and operational effectiveness.
The final demonstration in late September featured a variety of robotic platforms for the soldiers to take advantage of, including two Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport surrogates, two non-lethal quadruped robots and unmanned aircraft systems, all accessible via a tablet manned by the platoon leader.
Detecting Intruders From Afar
The Department of Defense is testing new software called Scylla (pronounced SKY-la) to proactively identify risks and intruders or active shooters. The program uses wide-area detection cameras and drones to alert security personnel before things escalate.
In tests, Scylla detected an “intruder” with a gun climbing a water tower from an existing camera a mile away. Later, a closed-circuit TV camera that was 660 feet away detected the armed “intruder” kneeling on the water tower’s catwalk, and the camera zoomed in for a closer look.
Bridging Language Barriers
Contracting personnel at the Yokota Air Base in Japan recently received linguist training on how to use AI and machine learning for language translation and localization, a critical step in enhancing communications with the local Japanese industry. The technology has broader applications on a global scale for operations in non-English speaking regions.
Software for Hemorrhage Triage of Combat Casualties
Over 90% of combat casualties die at or near the point of injury before they can be evacuated to a medical treatment facility. Furthermore, the primary cause of death among combat casualties is uncontrolled bleeding.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence-powered smartphone application developed by the U.S. Army that uses vital-sign data from trauma patients to assess their risk of hemorrhage. It consists of an Android app that collects heart rate and blood pressure data received via Bluetooth from a patient’s external vital-sign monitor and analyzes the pattern in these data to estimate the patient’s potential risk of uncontrolled bleeding. The application can stratify the risk of hemorrhage within 10 minutes, greatly assisting medics in triaging casualties in prolonged field care scenarios with limited resources in time to improve their chances of survival.
Source: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. Includes courtesy photos.