The US Army intends to use robots to replace soldiers for certain specialised tasks. Credit: US Army by Peggy Frierson.

The US Army has invested $30m to leverage big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop smarter robots that would replace soldiers for specialist tasks.

The investment will be used to build unmanned ground and aerial vehicles such as future vertical lift and the next-generation combat vehicle.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Data Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) commander major general Cedric T Wins said: “It’s time for robots to replace soldiers for certain specialised tasks involving dull, dirty or dangerous work and to reduce their cognitive load.”

In addition, the army has taken two significant steps to increase the use of advanced robotics, added Wins.

Firstly, Army Materiel Command unit RDECOM will fall under Army Futures Command (AFC), which will enlist the talent and resources of approximately 10,000 RDECOM engineers and scientists, along with its network of partnerships throughout industry and academia.

“It’s time for robots to replace soldiers for certain specialised tasks involving dull, dirty or dangerous work and to reduce their cognitive load.”

Under the second step, the army command has entered the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) algorithmic warfare cross-functional team, which has been code-named Project Maven.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

Win added: “To maximise big data, you need a very, very, very robust high-performance computing capability, focused on being able to deal with the volume of information, harness the speed by which data can be generated; and be able to deal with the diversity of data to make it meaningful and informative for the user. And then having the ability to trust the information and verify and validate that data and then make it useful.”

The Project Maven has been designed to be completed in two phases. Phase I of the project involves research on developing computer decision algorithms that would help evaluate full-motion video input.

Phase II of Project Maven is focused on improvements from the first phase by enhancing the scope, scale, and speed of the process in order to assess data more quickly and effectively.

In addition, the US Army intends to use AI, machine learning and big-data analytics to transform the mission command during combat.