From Popular science shills
Swarms of Robot Soldiers Could Make Better Decisions Than Human Leaders on Data-Strewn Battlefields
Modern warfare relies increasingly on robotics for intelligence gathering and increasingly for strike capabilities, but the decision-making capacity still rests solely in the hands of human commanders. But British defense company BAE systems is testing a way to turn over battlefield decisions over to robot troops as well.
ALADDIN (Autonomous Learning Agents for Decentralised Data and Information Networks) is BAE’s response to the overload of sensors and data now confronting battlefield commanders who now have UAV observations, soldier-based sensors, satellite data, and reams of other intelligence washing over them in such volumes that, as Air Force Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula puts it, they’ll be “swimming in sensors and drowning in data.” The system allows a network of robot soldiers to quickly collect and exchange information and then to bargain with each other to determine the best course of action and execute it.
Technology, Clay Dillow, machine thinking, military, robot soldiers, robotic warfare, robotics, robotsThe robots are armed to the teeth with algorithms employing a range of models – game theory, probabilistic modeling, optimization techniques – that let them predict outcomes and allocate battlefield resources far more quickly and efficiently than humans trying to process the same amount of data. All that should help troops – both robotic and otherwise – keep stay afloat in the data deluge.
But does it work? ALADDIN hasn’t seen any trigger time yet, but BAE and university researchers collaborating on the system have put it through simulated natural disasters (another potential application). Disasters, they theorize, are similar to warfare in their chaotic nature, and therefore the simulations are a good analog.
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Swarms of Robot Soldiers Could Make Better Decisions Than Human Leaders on Data-Strewn Battlefields
Modern warfare relies increasingly on robotics for intelligence gathering and increasingly for strike capabilities, but the decision-making capacity still rests solely in the hands of human commanders. But British defense company BAE systems is testing a way to turn over battlefield decisions over to robot troops as well.
ALADDIN (Autonomous Learning Agents for Decentralised Data and Information Networks) is BAE’s response to the overload of sensors and data now confronting battlefield commanders who now have UAV observations, soldier-based sensors, satellite data, and reams of other intelligence washing over them in such volumes that, as Air Force Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula puts it, they’ll be “swimming in sensors and drowning in data.” The system allows a network of robot soldiers to quickly collect and exchange information and then to bargain with each other to determine the best course of action and execute it.
Technology, Clay Dillow, machine thinking, military, robot soldiers, robotic warfare, robotics, robotsThe robots are armed to the teeth with algorithms employing a range of models – game theory, probabilistic modeling, optimization techniques – that let them predict outcomes and allocate battlefield resources far more quickly and efficiently than humans trying to process the same amount of data. All that should help troops – both robotic and otherwise – keep stay afloat in the data deluge.
But does it work? ALADDIN hasn’t seen any trigger time yet, but BAE and university researchers collaborating on the system have put it through simulated natural disasters (another potential application). Disasters, they theorize, are similar to warfare in their chaotic nature, and therefore the simulations are a good analog.
READ MORE
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