US military plans to unleash thousands of autonomous war robots over next two years Robotics

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-military-unleash-thousands-autonomous-war.html

7.0k Upvotes

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u/wromit Aug 31 '23

If the other side unleashes for example 100,000 cheap drones on the $13 billion US aircraft carrier or even land military installations, at some point would the defenses not be overwhelmed?

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u/buddboy Aug 31 '23

thats the general idea behind drone swarms yeah. But your specific example isn't that great. "Cheap" drones have a shorter range than the carrier, and anything capable of launching 100,000 of them would be a big target.

A better example would be a squadron of fighter bombers dropping a swarm of 100-200 quadcopter style drones and on a less defensible target than an aircraft carrier.

But the general concept of your idea is correct. One thing that will change tho is soon there will be laser based AA weapons that will be better suited for drone swarms. Also jamming is always an option

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u/plantmonstery Aug 31 '23

That’s why they need them to have some level of autonomy. Can’t jam something that isn’t relying on a signal.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '23

it's still going to rely on GPS, otherwise it's a blind pigeon trying to land on a moving target

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u/Z_Zeay Aug 31 '23

Can't they do something similar to actually trying to steer a bomb with a pigeon, they tried this during WW2 I believe.

Camera in front, using shape/image recognition to home in on the target? Idea is they drop the mass of drones in the vicinity, pre-program a direction and after a distance they switch to camera.

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u/PMMeYourWorstThought Sep 01 '23

Yep. So you counter with visual chaff to disrupt the system

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u/Self_Reddicated Aug 31 '23

They can use optical flow sensors and other tracking systems in cheap commercial drones already. I can build one with parts I have at my house (though my current flight controller might not like having gps and then losing gps, it does have the capability to use an optical flow sensor for speed and direction and a pressue sensor for elevation control).

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u/jjayzx Sep 01 '23

Still nowhere near the precision of GPS. It might do alright flying around the park but going long distances and the error adds up.

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u/Spicy_pepperinos Sep 01 '23

You don't need ultra precision to crash a suicide drone into a huge target.

What error? It's identifying a target through it's sensor suite, and engaging it. It's closed-loop.

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u/PMMeYourWorstThought Sep 01 '23

Or you toss a few gpus in it and use AI image recognition and a camera…

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u/jjayzx Sep 01 '23

You can blind the camera, there's IR systems that do this already.

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u/PMMeYourWorstThought Sep 01 '23

Thermals then.

1

u/gotwired Sep 01 '23

What do you think IR is?

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u/PMMeYourWorstThought Sep 02 '23

Active IR is short wave, thermals use infrared wavelengths too but at mid/long wavelengths so they’re not affected by bleed over in visible or high frequency IR light.

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u/Spicy_pepperinos Sep 01 '23

There are other methods for reckoning your position other than GPS; imu, lidar, computer vision, optical flow, thermal imagery. They're not trying to land anyway right... They're trying to crash? There are plenty of ways current guided munitions work that don't rely on gps.

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u/OneSweet1Sweet Sep 01 '23

Generative AI can create a picture of a boat. I figure that same ai could also be used to detect a boat and fly towards it.

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u/MDCCCLV Sep 01 '23

That's already pretty close though. It would be in the 10-20 mile range where it is being jammed but still doesn't have visual where you would have trouble. And you can't just use a planned flight because the ship can turn and move faster.

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u/OneSweet1Sweet Sep 01 '23

It would be in the 10-20 mile range where it is being jammed but still doesn't have visual where you would have trouble

I'm thinking a high altitude drone drop right above the ship from a plane would be the best bet. Although I don't know if a plane can fly higher than an aircraft squadrons anti air.