Soldiers Use AI to Fuse Sensors – Help Guide Drones

Darpa SQUAD X image

Warrior Maven Video Above: DARPA’s SQUAD X – Combines Precision Grenades, Drones, Robots, Sensors

By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

The Pentagon’s research and technology arm is testing a “breakthrough” AI-enabled technology for dismounted mobile combat units that synthesizes drone feeds, robot sensors, small arms fire detection, and ground-based radar — to “out cycle” enemy decision-making and attack with success.

Instead of having to gather, organize and analyze overwhelming amounts of fast-emerging combat variables, soldiers and marines can instantly access a single, integrated or “fused” product enabling them to destroy enemies “first.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s SQUAD X program, which is already testing with both CACI and Lockheed Martin, can take information from drone-video feeds, armed ground robots and acoustic sensors detecting the origin of incoming enemy small arms fire – and use automation to present a combined picture to squad leaders in combat.

“A Marine squad does not ever stop moving. They have a ‘bias toward action.’ We want to create a form of autonomy that also has a ‘bias toward action’ to retain the initiative. With human oversight, we employ automated engagement,” Lt. Col. Philip Root, program manager for SQUAD X, told Warrior Maven in an interview earlier this year.

The system, according to Root, also draws upon ground-based radar, night-vision targeting and infrared-electro-optical sensors to inform ground units in combat. For instance, if ground-based radar were able to identify an enemy object at a certain distance, a nearby drone could be cued to gather video feeds and merge the target information with maps and other sensors, giving soldiers a complete combat picture in seconds. Among other things, this prevents soldiers from losing time analyzing overwhelming amounts of incoming data from disparate sources or nodes.