📌 TOPINDIATOURS Hot ai: Russian Soldiers Seen Surrendering to Gun-Wielding Robot T

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth year, remotely-operated ground robots have become a startlingly common sight on the battlefield.

According to the defense policy think tank, the Jamestown Foundation, Ukraine has turned into a world leader in unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), allowing the country’s military to coordinate robotic warfare while reducing casualties.

Now, a video making the rounds on social media appears to show three Russian soldiers emerging from a building with their arms raised and surrendering to a robot armed with a machine gun. One of the soldiers appears to be covered in blood, adding to the sense of surreal darkness. A separate drone appears to be trained on the soldiers as well.

According to the Ukrainian military news outlet Militarnyi, the robot was a reconnaissance-strike ground unit dubbed Droid TW, built by Ukrainian defense company DevDroid. The washing machine-sized platform uses AI to autonomously identify targets and can shoot 7.62mm caliber rounds. The robot was developed at the request of the First Medical Battalion of the Ukrainian army, which was seeking a way to evacuate wounded soldiers under heavy fire — but considering the footage, the army may have found a different use for it as well.

The Jamestown Foundation noted that Ukrainian UVGs are “increasingly replacing infantry in high-risk missions, providing sustained firepower, engineering support, and resilience against electronic warfare, terrain challenges, and prolonged deployments.”

The country has had to seriously step up its game, with 40 Ukrainian defense companies producing 99 percent of UGVs domestically. As The Economist reported last year, there are around 200 different models of these robots, ranging from AI-enabled anti-drone laser guns to ground-based machine-gun platforms.

Other robots can lay down anti-tank mines, transport tons of materials for infantry on the front lines, or provide cover from the air under heavy artillery to exfiltrate injured soldiers. Some are outfitted with dozens of pounds of explosives to self-destruct near fortifications or bridges.

Ukraine is also getting a hand from Western defense companies, like German firm ARX Robotics, which is manufacturing a fleet of small tank-like UGVs.

Apart from videos of Russian soldiers surrendering, we’ve seen footage of UGVs engaging Russian armored personnel carriers. We’ve also seen other buggy-sized “Droid” UGVs, built by DevDroid, fighting with Russian infantry.

In short, the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine war are a weird laboratory for modern warfare, which, against all odds, has given Ukraine a considerable tactical edge over its much larger adversary.

More on war: New App Lets Users Bet on Deadly Conflicts in Real Time

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📌 TOPINDIATOURS Eksklusif ai: NASA’s Moon Spacesuits Are Plagued With Issues Hari

NASA is gearing up for the first crewed journey to the Moon in over half a century, a mission that could launch as soon as two weeks from now.

And next year, the agency will finally attempt to return astronauts to the lunar surface itself as part of its Artemis 3 mission, which will dramatically increase the already considerable stakes.

Particularly when it comes to stepping out of the spacecraft — the agency has yet to pick between Blue Origin and SpaceX’s offerings in that regard — staying protected from the extreme temperature swings, space radiation, and lack of atmosphere is extremely challenging.

That’s not to mention the physical limitations of an extremely bulky spacesuit, which could physically tax astronauts even more than stepping outside of the International Space Station during a spacewalk.

As Ars Technica reports, former NASA astronaut and microbiologist Kate Rubins, who retired last year and has logged 300 days in space, recently voiced her concerns over the Moon suit that private space company Axiom Space has been developing for NASA as part of a $228 million contract.

“What I think we have on the Moon that we don’t really have on the space station that I want people to recognize is an extreme physical stress,” she said during a recent meeting of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Besides not getting any sleep, Rubin warned that people will be “in these suits for eight or nine hours” and doing extravehicular activities (EVAs) “every day.”

Compared to the suits NASA astronauts wore during the Apollo missions, the Axiom Space suit is considerably heavier. While a sixth of gravity will greatly alleviate some of that heft, they still weigh in at 300 pounds. At the same time, Moon walkers will enjoy greatly enhanced flexibility, allowing them to kneel down to pick up objects, for instance.

“I think the suits are better than Apollo, but I don’t think they are great right now,” Rubin warned, noting “flexibility issues” and the reality that “people are going to be falling over.”

In remarks directly to Ars, Rubin elaborated, emphasizing that the suits are “definitely much better than Apollo,” but remain “still quite heavy.”

Even something as simple as getting back up after a fall — as demonstrated by the many Apollo astronauts who took a tumble while on the Moon — involves a type of “jumping pushup,” as Rubins told Ars, which is a “non-trivial” and “risky maneuver.”

Not everybody is as concerned about the Axiom Space suit. Current NASA astronaut and physician Mike Barratt argued in remarks during the committee meeting that the “suit is getting there,” pointing out that “we’ve got 700 hours of pressurized experience in it right now.”

“Bending down in the suit is really not too bad at all,” he added.

NASA still plans to conduct plenty of tests involving the suit, including parabolic flight, which can simulate the partial gravity of the Moon’s surface. The agency has already put the suit through its paces underwater at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab.

The agency has until sometime next year to finalize the design for its long-awaited Artemis 3 mission to the lunar surface. At the same time, NASA still has plenty of decisions to make, including how to get down to the lunar surface in the first place.

More on Artemis: Experts Warn That There’s Something Wrong With the Moon Rocket NASA Is About to Launch With Astronauts Aboard

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🔗 Sumber: futurism.com