How Artificial Intelligence can be a Force Multiplier for Armed Forces

By Lt Col Avadhut Deshpande (Retd)

The combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) / drone can be a deadly cocktail. I am not talking about using Artificial Intelligence for flying, monitoring or navigating the UAV, this is something that Artificial Intelligence has to offer and machine learning ensures.

Let me paint the scenario – 02.00 am a drone on night surveillance mission and the pilot controlling from the ground control station is looking for say infiltrators along the border. He is focused on the monitor screen straining his eyes and using the thermal imaging to look for human activity indication in rugged mountain terrain. Now, how can digital disruption enhance the capability of this mission? It is pertinent to mention here that the Artificial Intelligence all by itself cannot solve the problem but the Artificial Intelligence tool can be bought up to speed by self-learning which we call as machine learning. The Artificial Intelligence platform can quickly consume the huge amount of data and quickly join the dots to predict based on huge data bank and assist the operator in the quicker identification of a suspect target.

Taking a step further the platform can be trained to identify whether the target is carrying a weapon and also can plot his movements, following footmarks on the snow/attempts to obliterate it.

Let me now come to the crux – the drone is going to provide video streaming from a standoff distance to the control station. The Artificial Intelligence program will run through the video streaming from the drone and apply a series of algorithms. Algorithms are basically mathematical procedures that are like a flow chart to compare the object seen with thousands of stored reference images of the target in different postures /angles  / movements/positions. So reference images giving height /shape or action whether it has a head /hands/legs is compared. On the lighter side, a mountain goat seen by the camera will immediately compare with the data bank and tell it to be not a human. Here using the model of a human brain, machine learning teaches Artificial Intelligence to learn new things, recognize patterns and make decisions and raise the alert in near real-time for the security forces to take proactive action to neutralize the threat.

The value proposition here is the ability of the Artificial Intelligence tool to consume the vast amount of data(big data) in short time and drawing conclusions based on certain rule sets followed.In typical existing scenario -assuming that the operator has identified the activity and now he will rewind/pause/zoom many times to be sure. But the Artificial Intelligence tool in near real-time can raise an alert (even if a false positive).

It is characteristic of such program that it is self-learning So the programmer needs to set rules for all things that the operator wishes to be alerted. The vast experience of the human operator can further enhance the learning of the recognition tool. the images recognized and the silhouette is classified. Just imagine the impact of such an Artificial Intelligence platform integrated with machine learning in operation for say a couple of months.

The tool will self-learn and become a credible support system for the forces against infiltration. Every such sighting will improve the tool and the results will tilt in favor of the security forces.

[The views expressed in this article are personal]

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