Ground Forces IoBT – What is Still Missing?

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Soldiers can get improved capabilities for identifying and neutralising the enemy, thanks to a network of connected sensors utilising cloud technology embedded within biometric wearables, combat gear, and vehicles. It is called the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT).

It is imperative that IoBT solutions add value to personnel on the ground and not add to an already stressful situation with complex and confusing data. Any information that is transferred to a human at the end of the chain must be meaningful and manageable.

However, there are still challenges such as energy constraints and how to best ensure data gets to where it needs to be as soon as possible.

One of the problems is friend or foe identification in the land domain. The difficulties in linking static ground sensors, soldier sensors, vehicle sensors, UAV sensors and robotic sensors still need solutions.

In the land domain, there is also a major bandwidth issue. Exchanging data requires dissemination of enormous amounts of data. The ultimate challenge is to minimise irrelevant data exchanges, ensuring that updates and developments stay relevant.

Dismounted soldiers have a major situational awareness difficulty. Dr Robert Sadowski, Army Chief Roboticist, U.S. Army said: “Now we can take some of that information and we let the crew assist. Regarding the dismounts, we have found that if you put dismounts in the back of the vehicle and provide them with a camera feed to the outside world, they can assess the threat environment before they emerge from the vehicle.”

The next stage is connecting feeds to the rest of the network which is an expensive consideration, says IHS Jane’s Analyst, Christopher Foss. “I think we’ve still got some way to go because a lot of new vehicles don’t even have an electronic architecture such as the original Boxer vehicle; it is, however, going to be added.”

Whether it comes from UAVs, humans, stay-be hinders, reconnaissance units, or electronic warfare, the biggest challenge is information management. Information overload is highly likely in a fast-flowing operational environment and the great difficulty is in processing information and passing it down the chain of command to ensure it gets to the right place.

Power and energy challenges – a soldier system interface that takes the information through artificial intelligence and machine learning to strip out extraneous data can provide the soldiers with the information they need. One of the biggest challenges facing this concept is finding a solution capable of providing the power and energy for persistent robotics support.

Robotics and connectivity will go a long way in pulling back the fog of war. Units with robotically enabled formations will be able to see more, understand more, and act significantly more effectively compared to current formation capabilities, as defenceiq.com assesses.

Most industries focus on the analysis of offline data in contrast to a military environment where real-time analysis is the chief concern. Machine learning and artificial intelligence may have trouble with the difficult combat environments and terrain associated with insurgency conflict or terrain with fewer infrastructures to support the exchange of data.