Ohio POW MIA

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Military uniform
  • Military science
  • Military headlines
  • Military alliance
  • Military budget

Ohio POW MIA

Header Banner

Ohio POW MIA

  • Home
  • Military uniform
  • Military science
  • Military headlines
  • Military alliance
  • Military budget
Military science
Home›Military science›Searching for Russia with the Marker robot, explained

Searching for Russia with the Marker robot, explained

By Susan T. Johnson
January 21, 2022
0
0

This month, Russia announced that it had completed research on its experimental Marker combat robot. The machine, designed from the start as a test bed for future tools and technologies, was never intended for combat, but machines based on its characteristics will be. In a Russian military that is modernizing and mobilizing for war, the Marker program was a bet placed on the future of Russian robotics, a bet in which the biggest dividends will be realized years from now.

The marker is an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), similar in shape if not in armament to a tank. And like a tank, it has a tracked platform, on which a range of sensors and weapons can be added. These include a turret with machine guns and anti-tank missiles, as well as a box that can launch drones.

Built by Android Technologies for the Advanced Research Foundation, Russia’s analogue of DARPA, the Marker has been a demonstration vehicle in demonstrations since at least 2019. In this 2019 demonstration, the Marker’s turret tracked the movements of the Scope of an infantry spotter, suggesting that a human could aim the vehicle’s weapon from a distance. Even flashier, the Marker moved in formation alongside 15 smaller quadcopter drones.

“We have completed work on the marker,” Yevgeny Dudorov, head of Android technology, said, according to a recent report by state news agency RIA Novosti. “As part of this, we have developed a number of technologies, but above all, the technology of autonomous group interaction of robotic devices on the ground.”

[Related: Meet the ‘Spy Stone,’ a Russian robot disguised as a rock]

The marker, from the beginning, has been a tool for testing and exploring military operations in the safety of controlled field exercises. It’s a way to determine what might be possible if everything lines up the right way on a future battlefield.

“This is Russia’s most visible R&D project involving ground autonomy, swarm development, [ground robot and drone] teaming and manned-unmanned teaming. Marker is also a testbed for military AI solutions such as machine vision, image recognition, and natural language processing,” says Samuel Bendett, analyst at the Center for Naval Analysis and deputy principal investigator at the Center. for New American Security.

In its support for the wars in Syria and eastern Ukraine, Russia has already deployed new robots, but these have been in conventional use cases. Rather than introducing new combat formations, these robots were a tool added to a bomb squadron, or a scout robot incorporated into normal reconnaissance tasks. Marker, by testing systems such as sensors or communications that can go on existing robots, may have improved the functioning of these robots.

The country’s Defense Ministry has announced plans to test its existing Uran-9 combat robot, its Kungas family of combat and reconnaissance robots, and the developing Soratnik and Shturm robot tanks.

“The Russian Ministry of Defense is continuing the swarm and group development of its air, land and sea robotic systems,” Bendett says. “The integration of these unmanned ground vehicles into a common operating environment with manned weapons and systems is a priority of the department’s program.”

[Related: An inside look at how one person can control a swarm of 130 robots]

By working with Marker, Russia was able to explore how combat formations designed from the outset to incorporate autonomous robots might work, and whether such formations can augment existing forces. Better communication, reconnaissance and control tools, tested on the marker, could allow robots to work in formation with human-crewed vehicles, and it’s a direction Russia has made clear it wants to take its military robot design.

Since 2014, Russia has backed forces inside eastern Ukraine, and this winter it appears to be mobilizing even more forces for a possible invasion of another part of the country. While Russian robots will likely play a modest role in any larger war between Ukraine and Russia, the Marker will not be one of those vehicles.

“Russia is likely to use Uran-6 mine clearance UGVs, as well as small Scarab and Sphera reconnaissance robots tested by Russian sappers in Syria during mine clearance operations,” Bendett said. “While the Russian military has tested different types of combat UGVs in recent exercises such as Zapad-2021, it is unlikely that they could see any significant use in Ukraine.”

While the Marker-influenced ground robots may fight in future wars, it’s the flying Russian robots that are likely to see action in any conflict in 2022.

“At the same time, many drones can be used by the Russian military in Ukraine, such as multiple short- and medium-range surveillance and reconnaissance models widely used in Syria,” Bendett said.

Related posts:

  1. This flagship of science launched India’s industrial revolution | India News
  2. Representative Sherrill Holds Science, Space and Technology Committee Hearing on PFAS Research and Development
  3. Chinese astronauts give science lesson from outdoor station
  4. NFL, TV Strahan flies into space with astronaut’s daughter | Science and discovery

Categories

  • Military alliance
  • Military budget
  • Military headlines
  • Military science
  • Military uniform

Recent Posts

  • Former Army Vice Chief Headlines Panel With Fort Hood Leadership | Herald of Fort Hood
  • DVIDS – News – Partnerships support science, research exchange between NPS, Norway
  • INSIGHT-By growing productive coca seeds, Mexican cartels are reshaping the Colombian drug industry
  • How the Iron Curtain became an ecological paradise
  • Brain science shows adolescent embarrassment is part of normal development

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • May 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • April 2014
  • January 2014
  • July 2013
  • January 2011
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions