The U.S. Army is integrating artificial intelligence into two prototype drones to improve ground and aerial situational awareness for warfighters, FCW reported Monday. The Army Research Laboratory, which operates under the Army Futures Command, is collaborating with the service’s AI Task Force and the recently created Joint AI Center to develop advanced mission learning and scene perception capabilities for the unmanned aerial vehicles.Â
“You would want the machine to make its own decisions and take a closer look,” said Raghuveer Rao, chief of the ARL’s image processing branch.Â
ARL personnel will focus on developing multi-platform operations as well as the UAV’s capacity for maneuvering in difficult conditions and adversarial environments. The lab will work on facial recognition technology based on targets’ heat signatures. The ARL plans to demonstrate the prototype drones’ target identification capabilities in August or September.