Laying mines, carrying cargo, and transporting dead bodies: These are all ways Ukraine’s soldiers are using ground robots in their fight against Russia.
Oleksandr Yabchanka, the head of the robotic systems for Ukraine’s Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, told Business Insider there are at least eight ways these robots are being used. In addition to the above, they’re also being used to transport injured soldiers, to de-mine, to fire at Russian positions, to explode like a bomb near Russian targets, and to gather intelligence.
He said one of these uses is the “most promising” for Ukraine’s forces: Its use as a bomb.
That’s because the robots can be piled with far more explosives than a sky drone can carry, and get closer than any human can safely.
“A crucial difference between aerial and on-the-ground unmanned systems is the mass that they can carry,” Yabchanka said. That’s key as Ukraine needs to “always be one step, half a step ahead of the enemy in terms of the powers of destruction.”
He said the biggest aerial drones can carry mines weighing 22 pounds each, while the smallest ground robots he works with can carry more than 48 pounds, and can carry a lot more than that on average.
The drones can also get much closer to Russian positions before exploding than any soldier can do safely. Some videos from the battlefields show the robots driving into Russian trenches and dugouts before exploding.
This video, captured by Yabchanka’s unit, shows how the robots can get into Russian positions:
Yabchanka said that a few hours before he spoke with Business Insider in March, his unit sent a robot carrying 66 pounds of explosives into a Russian basement.
It exploded in the actual basement, “not in the next street, not nearby,” and killed Russian infantry. Business Insider could not independently verify that claim.
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Flaws in the system
The robot technology is evolving and improving, but Yabchanka said it’s still flawed.
The robots can gather intelligence through their cameras, but not as effectively as drones in the sky. Even simple obstacles, like grass, can limit that function, Yabchanka said.
Another problem is that they can lose communications and then become “just an expensive pile of metal scrap,” Yabchanka said. Many companies are using AI and other technology to let the robots move without any operator input, but it’s a constant development race.
By collecting injured soldiers, for example, the robots can get soldiers while risking fewer other troops. But Yabchanka said it’s only used as a last resort, because if the platform becomes disconnected, it leaves the vulnerable soldier in the open and far from comrades, visible to Russia’s drones.
Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Laying mines and hauling munitions
The robots are being armed with rifles and other weapons so they can fire at Russian positions while keeping Ukrainian soldiers away from return fire. Yabchanka described this function as the “most complex in terms of implementation,” but one that lets his unit do things that can’t be done “even by the bravest infantry people.”
The robots can lay mines, which Yabchanka said is “quite dangerous” for soldiers to do, as “you have a flock of the enemy’s drones all hovering over you.” The robots can also carry more mines than soldiers can.
In addition to mines, the robots can carry the cargo that soldiers need, everything from food and water to ammunition. Yabchanka said one average-sized robotized system can carry more than what around 10 servicemen can typically carry.
And unlike aerial drones, robots can demine.
The robots can go ahead of soldiers to see if the route is clear. They’ll sustain damage if they hit a mine, which is preferable to a human being hurt or killed.
Yabchanka said his unit has started to use robots to collect the bodies of fallen servicemen. Typically, doing that takes around eight soldiers, and it risks their lives. It’s not a perfect solution, Yabchanka said: The robot can become disconnected or hit by a mine, meaning soldiers still have to help.
Christophe Morin/IP3/Getty Images
The tech is evolving in real time
The tech is still evolving, and both companies and soldiers are finding new ways to develop and use it.
Yabchanka said his unit sometimes talks to the manufacturers by way of video calls from trenches.
One ground robot company said Ukrainian soldiers were even finding ways to use its robots that it was not expecting.
The use of ground robots in war is not entirely new, and Western companies have used versions of them in recent conflicts. But what stands out in Ukraine is the scale of their use and the rapid innovation in how they’re used.
It’s something the West is watching, with companies and militaries upgrading their tech in response. But Russia is doing the same.
Yabchanka said that when it comes to any of the new uses that Ukraine and its allies find for the robots, “the question is not if but when” Russia will do the same.
“So the question is who will do it faster?” he said.
“We need to scale all these things up quicker than the Russians do,” he said, urging European industry to work closely with Ukrainian troops and industry to innovate fast.
