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Archive for the ‘Robotics’ Category

Army Advances Research in Robotics, AI and Autonomy

Friday, April 18th, 2025

ADELPHI, Md. — In recognition of National Robotics Week, U.S. Army researchers highlight some of their groundbreaking work aimed at advancing the future of human-machine integration for the battlefield.

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, known as DEVCOM ARL, robotics research spans across ground and air autonomous systems, and energy systems, that support future mobility and maneuverability of these systems. ARL robotics researchers partner with industry, government and academia to help protect and support the Soldier.

One example of a recent ARL breakthrough is integrating generative artificial intelligence with robotics for battle damage assessment operations. ARL robots are now capable of understanding and responding to natural language, offering the Soldier human-like interactions.

“We are bridging the gap between humans and robots, making them more intuitive, responsive, and, ultimately, more useful for the Soldier,” said Phil Osteen, a lead researcher for the Artificial Intelligence for Maneuver and Mobility, or AIMM program. “ARL researchers have demonstrated an interactive bi-directional communication system that enables real-time exchanges between humans and robots.”

By interacting with Soldiers using natural language, robots can better communicate battlefield observations such as damage assessments and mission execution reports, enhancing battlefield operations.

The AIMM program is also focused on advancing autonomous off-road mobility, human-guided machine learning, and tactical behaviors that go beyond simple point-to-point movement. Army operations are complex, requiring considerations such as cover, concealment, mission considerations and formation controls, according to Udam Silva, AIMM program manager.

“We’ve made significant progress in off-road mobility,” Silva said. “We can now autonomously navigate through dense vegetation at operational speeds.”

ARL researchers also leverage external collaboration. In a research effort under AIMM, robotics researchers collaborate with an industry partner, Overland AI, on dual-use hardware and software solutions for ground autonomy, enabling vehicles to navigate challenging natural terrain autonomously at operationally relevant speeds.

In a separate ARL autonomous program, Human Autonomy Teaming, or HAT, is creating a cutting-edge toolkit of a suite of technologies that enable continuous mission planning, execution and review process between humans and autonomous systems, offering a more honest assessment. This iterative, or continuous assessment is a way of shortening that cycle, so Soldiers can determine when their autonomous systems deviate and why.

“This gives Soldiers the tools to correct robots’ behaviors using techniques such as human-guided machine learning developed by multiple ARL programs,” said Dr. Brandon Perelman, HAT program manager.

The HAT program is ensuring the U.S. Army’s software is continually refined to counter adversaries’ adaptations, according to Perelman.

According to Perelman, the software being developed is compatible with multiple interfaces, so mission plans can go into any equipped vehicle. It has a data synchronization and re-streaming package so different data streams can line up, while also looking at video feeds and positions, navigation and timing data from a robot for a fuller view of a complex situation such as encountered on the battlefield.

The HAT program informs future research aimed to expand vertically to higher, larger echelons in the Army chain of command as well as horizontally, across warfighting functions, to include multiple domains such as mount-dismount coordination, and ground-air teaming.

These examples represent some of ARL’s transformative robotics work that span multiple critical domains, designed to enhance military capabilities and ensure technological superiority.

Related link: Robotics Research Collaboration Campus (R2C2)

By U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs

Scout AI Emerges from Stealth with $15M Seed Round, Lands 2 DoD Contracts, and Unveils Fury – Robotic Foundation Model for Defense

Thursday, April 17th, 2025

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 16, 2025 — Scout AI Inc. (“Scout”) today announced its emergence from stealth mode with a bold mission: to build the AGI brain for defense robotics. The company also unveiled an oversubscribed $15 million seed round led by Align Ventures and Booz Allen Ventures, and revealed it has been selected for multiple Department of Defense (DoD) contracts.

Founded in August 2024 by Colby Adcock and Collin Otis, Scout brings together deep experience at the intersection of AI, robotics, and defense. CEO Colby Adcock is a former tech private equity executive and current board member at humanoid robotics company Figure AI. CTO Collin Otis is a serial entrepreneur who previously was a founding engineer and Director of Autonomy and AI at Kodiak Robotics and Head of Data Science and Chief of Staff at Uber ATG. He has built autonomy systems from the ground up for both commercial and military platforms and previously sold a venture-backed startup to Target.

At the core of Scout’s breakthrough is Fury, a defense-specific Vision-Language-Action (VLA) foundation model engineered to transform every defense robot into an intelligent, autonomous agent. Unlike traditional robotics software, Fury is an embodied AI system — capable of perceiving the physical world, interpreting natural language, and issuing real-time motor commands to act decisively even in communication and GPS-denied environments.

“Achieving warfighter-level versatility in robotic systems requires grounding AI in physical reality,” said Otis. “By training our system on human-level behavior we make our AI embodied. Fury develops the kind of intelligence warfighters naturally have — situational, physical, and adaptive.”

What sets Fury apart from conventional language models is its ability to perceive, reason, and act across multiple modalities. It doesn’t just output text — it commands machines. Trained on large-scale real-world data, Fury brings multimodal reasoning and precision control to a wide spectrum of uncrewed systems: ground, air, sea, and space. It can be directed via natural language or fine-tuned for specific mission profiles, delivering human-like autonomy at machine scale.

Scout’s first two prototypes — the G01 unmanned ground vehicle and A01 unmanned aerial vehicle — are already operating autonomously powered by Fury at the company’s proving grounds in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

“Physical AI is the most decisive military advantage of the century,” said Adcock. “Our vision is one warfighter commanding many robots — seamlessly integrated into a unified team. That level of human-machine integration requires an AI brain like Fury that understands commander intent and can think, move, and collaborate like seasoned operators. That’s how we achieve true force multiplication.”

Scout is proudly planting its flag in Silicon Valley, building its team in Sunnyvale and pulling top AI and autonomy talent from the self-driving, big tech, and defense worlds to tackle this critical mission. “We’re bringing in the world’s best engineers to work on the world’s most important frontier — making sure this AI is built securely and responsibly for the good guys,” said Adcock. “Our adversaries are already building it. We must develop this technology and outpace them — and ensure the U.S. leads the future of intelligent defense systems.”

Scout is also taking a partnership-driven approach. Its Fury system is designed to be lightweight, modular, and hardware-agnostic — running on as little as a single commercial off-the-shelf camera and low-power inference chip, enabling rapid integration into existing and emerging robotic hardware systems. A growing list of robotics companies are partnering with Scout to embed Fury into their platforms, unlocking advanced autonomy without overhauling their hardware. Industry partners looking to learn more can reach out directly via partnerships@scoutco.ai.

“Our system is designed to make existing platforms intelligent, and we’re excited to be working with partners across the defense ecosystem to bring that capability to scale,” noted Otis.

Scout closed on its $15 million seed round, led by Align Ventures and Booz Allen Ventures, with participation from Draper Associates, Decisive Point Ventures, Perot Jain, Sigmas Group, Evolution VC, BVVC, Habitat Partners, Piedmont Capital Investments, FJ Labs, Revelry Venture Partners, Monte Carlo Capital, Expansion VC, and Gaingels.

To learn more, visit scoutco.ai.

NRC “Lyut”: Ukrainian Units Will be Strengthened by a New Soldier-Robot

Wednesday, March 19th, 2025

The Ministry of Defense codified and allowed the domestically produced ground robotic complex “Lyut” to be operated in the units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. It is designed to perform a wide range of tasks in difficult conditions. In particular, to conduct surveillance and fire support for the actions of our units. This was reported by the Main Directorate for Support of the Life Cycle of Weapons and Military Equipment.

The robotic complex “Lyut” has been tested in real combat conditions. The robot is armed with a 7.62 caliber machine gun and additional equipment, thanks to which it can detect and hit targets both day and night. The NRC is quite compact – it fits in the body of a military pickup truck, equipped with a silent electric motor. The capacity of the batteries is enough for a fairly long time of operation. The NRC has a fairly high clearance, which allows you to move steadily on terrain with difficult terrain. “Fury” works at a wide range of temperatures.

The operator controls the complex from a protected position without being exposed to danger. The main task of ground robots is to strengthen our units and replace the soldier in the most dangerous areas.

We remind the manufacturers of military equipment that useful information on the procedure for codification of new types of weapons and military equipment can be found here.

Photo provided by the manufacturer

This is a translated press release from the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine

Overwatch and Milrem Robotics Announce Strategic Collaboration to Advance Unmanned Defence Capabilities

Monday, March 17th, 2025

Overwatch, a British aerospace and defence business specialising in the design and manufacture of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and Milrem Robotics, the world’s leading robotics and autonomous systems developer, have signed a collaboration agreement to drive product development, production, and sales of cutting-edge unmanned defence solutions worldwide.

Under this collaboration, Overwatch and Milrem Robotics will undertake joint research and development assessments to explore possibilities for integrating capabilities, payloads, and effects between Overwatch’s UAVs and Milrem Robotics’ unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), with the aim of developing highly interoperable unmanned systems.

Both parties will engage in collaborative test and evaluation efforts to advance operational capabilities and deliver enhanced performance under realistic mission conditions.

“Overwatch is thrilled to embark on this strategic collaboration with Milrem Robotics,” said Drew Michael, CEO of Overwatch. “By leveraging our respective strengths in UAV and UGV technologies, we aim to deliver unparalleled unmanned defence capabilities to meet the evolving needs of our customers worldwide.”

“We look forward to working closely with Overwatch to expand our product portfolios and address emerging market demands,” said Kuldar Väärsi, CEO of Milrem Robotics. “By combining our expertise and jointly exploring R&D and testing, we expect to develop integrated solutions that will significantly enhance operational effectiveness and mission success for our clients,” he added.

The companies will also coordinate marketing activities to promote each other’s products beyond their domestic markets, opening up new business opportunities across global defence sectors.

Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) Acquires THeMIS UGV from Milrem Robotics

Wednesday, March 5th, 2025

The U.S. Army’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) has acquired a THeMIS Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) equipped with the MIFIK Intelligent Functions Kit from Milrem Robotics. This cutting-edge technology will be used for further research in extreme cold environments in Arctic regions.

The THeMIS UGV is a modular and robust unmanned platform designed for various applications, including logistics, reconnaissance, and operational support. In its Cargo configuration, the THeMIS enables troops to effortlessly transport supplies, equipment, and extra weapons to the mission area, reducing soldiers’ cognitive load and the need for manpower.

The integration of MIFIK further enhances the platform with autonomous navigation, making it indispensable for operations in challenging terrain and climate conditions.

The THeMIS UGV is part of robotics programs or in service in 19 countries, making it the most widely used UGV in its size class.

“The THeMIS is the most mature UGV on the market. Its integration into multiple nations’ combat formations reduces customers’ overall integration and procurement risk,” said Patrick Shepherd, Chief Sales Officer at Milrem Robotics. “Milrem has the lessons learned and depth of experience to ensure a smooth integration into the military forces.”

The acquisition of this system aligns with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mission to advance technological innovation in support of national security and operational readiness. The THeMIS UGV will be deployed in various experimental and operational scenarios to assess its capabilities and contribute to ongoing research into autonomous systems for cold-weather operations.

CRREL is part of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and is dedicated to solving interdisciplinary challenges in cold and complex environments through engineering and scientific research. CRREL supports military and civilian operations by developing innovative solutions for infrastructure, mobility, and operational effectiveness in extreme climates.

Enforce Tac 25 – SAND-X Dual Operating Vehicle

Tuesday, March 4th, 2025

The SAND-X Dual Operating Vehicle (DOV) is a product of EISELIN Landsystems, a German company. It has been in active service with various units since 2008 and can be used in a manned configuration or operated as an Unmanned Ground System in a variety of roles. It can be switched between modes in seconds and controlled via mesh network extenders.

Thanks to its combination of wide-set forward wheels and tracked rear drive, it offers a low clean enter of gravity and will negotiate roads just as well as on soft substrates like sand and snow.

Here is a list of missions the SAND-X is currently used for:

1. Unmanned Attack: Equipped with advanced weaponry and autonomous capabilities, the SAND-X DOV executes precision strikes on enemy targets while minimizing risk to personnel.

2. ISNR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance): Conducting manned and unmanned reconnaissance missions, the SAND-X DOV gathers crucial intelligence for strategic planning using state-of-the-art sensors and surveillance equipment.

3. CASEVAC (Casualty Evacuation): Facilitating rapid evacuation of injured personnel from the battlefield to medical facilities, the SAND-X DOV ensures timely medical care with its manned and unmanned capabilities, supported by its rugged design and medical support infrastructure.

4. Resupply: Serving as a reliable logistics platform, the SAND-X DOV transports essential supplies and equipment to forward operating bases, bolstering frontline operations and sustaining combat effectiveness with manned and unmanned operations.

5. Mesh Network Creation: Establishing robust mesh networks, the SAND-X DOV enables seamless communication and coordination between deployed units in remote and hostile environments, leveraging its manned and unmanned communication capabilities.

6. Fighting Vehicle/Combat Vehicle: Transforming into a formidable combat vehicle, the SAND-X DOV engages hostile forces and provides fire support to friendly units, configured with armaments and defensive systems, whether manned or unmanned.

7. Minefield Detection and Crossing: Detecting and navigating through minefields, the SAND-X DOV ensures safe passage for troops and vehicles during urgent missions with its manned and unmanned capabilities, utilizing advanced sensors and unmanned operation.

www.sand-x.com

Robots on the Frontline: Clearing Hazards with MTGR

Saturday, March 1st, 2025

Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. —

As the geopolitical landscape continues to evolve, rapid capability fielding is proving critical to maintaining a decisive operational edge on the modern battlefield. In preparation for the future fight, Marine Corps Systems Command’s Program Manager Combat Support Systems (PM CSS) has achieved a significant milestone by fielding the Micro Tactical Ground Robot (MTGR)—a lightweight, agile, and modular robotic platform engineered for rapid standoff explosive hazard detection and neutralization.

Originally developed in partnership with industry for the U.S. Air Force’s EOD community, this capability has been adapted to meet the specific needs of the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) and stands as a prime example of the Corps’ Force Design modernization efforts– addressing evolving adversarial threats while aligning with the Pentagon’s strategic shift to the Indo-Pacific.

According to Capt. Timothy Guinan, project officer for the Explosive Hazard Defeat team, “The MTGR is a lightweight, backpackable robotic platform that embodies agility and modularity. Designed for dismounted combat engineers, it allows Marines to remotely assess and neutralize explosive hazards from a safe distance. This standoff capability is globally applicable, particularly in the congested and complex operational environments typical of the Indo-Pacific theater, where small, dispersed units must operate under the threat of improvised explosive devices and other explosive hazards.”

While survivability and lethality remain paramount, acquisition speed has emerged as an equally critical force multiplier. Fielded in less than a year from the program’s procurement decision, the rapid acquisition of MTGR reflects a paradigm shift in the Marine Corps’ approach to capability development.

Drawing on existing joint force programs and expertise, PM CSS’ Explosive Hazard Defeat team accelerated capability development while tailoring the system to meet the unique needs of the warfighter. Modernized technology paired with a user-friendly interface means that even Marines with minimal training can quickly become proficient operators.

The shift to the Indo-Pacific—with its geographically dispersed islands and maritime chokepoints—demands a force that is agile, expeditionary, and capable of operating in diverse and contested environments. The MTGR’s modular design allows it to be quickly reconfigured for various mission requirements, from explosive hazard detection to reconnaissance and surveillance. Rapidly fielding such a system underscores the Marine Corps’ commitment to modernization and ensures that Marines have the cutting-edge tools necessary to secure operational advantages.

Initial fielding of the MTGR capability began the last week of January 2025 with III MEF in Hawaii, where Marines concurrently completed new equipment training and integrating the system into their operations. This is the first step in a deliberate rollout that will extend to I MEF at Camp Pendleton, II MEF at Camp Lejeune, and Reserve Marines in the coming months. With a fielding objective of 154 systems, the Corps is prioritizing broad distribution to maximize operational impact.

Brian Johnson, logistics management specialist with the Explosive Hazard Defeat Team, emphasized the importance of fleet feedback in shaping effective solutions for Marines. He notes, “I’m most excited to get this system into Marines’ hands, train them, and see their reaction to a new capability that I truly believe in,” Johnson said. “Having worked with other robots, I can say this one stands out—it’s user-friendly, effective and well-suited for combat engineers. The effort behind selecting and refining this system paid off, and I think Marines will pick it up quickly and put it to good use.”

By Johannes Schmidt, MCSC Office of Public Affairs and Communication | Marine Corps Systems Command

Enforce Tac 25 – Heckler & Koch x Valhalla Remote-Controlled Weapon Stations

Monday, February 24th, 2025

Heckler & Koch is exhibiting Valhalla’s Remote Controlled Weapons Stations. H&K needs no introduction, but Valhalla is a Slovenian company which was founded eight years ago.

LOKI

At Enforce Tac, they are featuring the LOKI, a lightweight RCWS which is intended for belt-fed small arms like the H&K 421 in 7.62mm NATO, along with the MIDGUARD 40 which is paired with H&K’s 40mm Grenade Machine Gun. Likewise, the MIDGUARD will accept other larger caliber weapons.

MIDGUARD

Both systems incorporate gyre-stabilized EO/IR sights and laser range finders as well as shoot-on-the-move capability.

The MIDGUARD 40 / GMG combo offers C-UAS functionality when using ABM ammo and has a software feature which automatically tracks FPV drones, offering appropriate lead.