Palak Gupta

A fully automated machine warfare is not a possibility in the immediate future and robotics, undisputedly, is still in early stages. Yet despite its limited role, Artificial Intelligence (AI) or machine learning is already in the process of transforming the landscape of warfare.

                   Indian Army and border guarding forces continue to deploy substantive human resource on manning the                 
 military lines as well as the borders. With BEL-made robots, border management is likely to become less
tedious, less human-intensive and more efficient

Experts envision that future wars will be fought with Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS) which the US Department of Defense describes as “systems that function with minimal to no human intervention, selecting and engaging targets by themselves through pattern-recognition algorithms.”

In India, Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) is tasked with research and development in the domains of AI, robotics, command and control, networking, information and communication security.

Some of the applications of AI include assisting in evaluating the imagery and offering analysis. It enables the military assets on the ground to communicate with satellites in space, helps with gathering data, building data sets and identifying the patterns boosting the forces ability to conduct Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations.

With advancement, it is expected to evolve and play a more consolidated role in different domains of warfare: land, air, sea, cyber and space.

Robotics and Indian Military

The Bengaluru-based CAIR lab has been working on a team of robots named Multi Agent Robotics Framework (MARF) which have the capability to collaborate a