The combat vehicles research and development establishment in Avadi, Chennai, will lead India’s charge in future wars. The Defence Research and Development Organis-ation (DRDO) laboratory will develop robots that will replace about 10 lakh soldiers risking lives to safeguard the country on the Line of Control.
The robots that are envisaged to fight wars in the future will come out of the Combat Vehicles Research and Develop-ment Establishment (CVRDE), a Defence Research and Develo-pment Organisation (DRDO) laboratory at Avadi, Dr V.K. Saraswat, scientific advisor to the defence minister and director-general DRDO, said.
V.K. Saraswat, DRDO director-general scientific advisor to the defence minister, told this newspaper on Sunday that pilot work had begun with the Army already experimenting with robot mules to carry arms and equipment to firing areas.
“Small robots are already doing surveillance work, while robot mules have been pressed into service to carry heavy armaments to high-altitude war zones,” Dr Saraswat said, adding that autonomous underwater vehicles capable of doing multiple actions are also in the development stage.
He said it requires major technology, along with artificial intelligence, to develop tracked vehicle robots capable of donning a soldier’s role. “The entire functions of a soldier, including negating different types of terrain and the means to protect itself from fire coming towards it, are being studied,” he said.
The robots would be controlled from the control centre, but there would be no human interference on the field, Dr Saraswat said. “We are in the process of creating a tremendous database so that the autonomy level of the robot reaches 8 to 9 on a scale of 10, which would enable it to fight a war with the required intelligence,” he said.