MESSAGE
| DATE | 2024-11-23 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] the time has arrived...
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/killer-robots-are-about-to-fill-ukrainian-skies/ar-AA1ub9zW
KYIV, Ukraine—Killer robots have arrived on the Ukrainian battlefield.
In a front-line dugout this spring, a Ukrainian drone navigator selected
a target—a Russian ammunition truck—by tapping it on a tablet screen
with a stylus. The pilot flicked a switch on his handset to select
autopilot and then watched the drone swoop down from a few hundred yards
away and hit the vehicle.

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“Let it burn,” said one of the team, as they observed a plume of smoke
on a video feed from a reconnaissance drone.
Strikes like this represent a big advance in Ukraine’s attempts to use
computers to help it combat Russia’s huge army. The drone that carried
it out was controlled in the final attack phase by a small onboard
computer designed by the U.S.-based company Auterion. Several other
companies, many of them Ukrainian, have successfully tested similar
autopilot systems on the battlefield.
Now, an even bigger breakthrough looms: mass-produced automated drones.
In a significant step not previously reported, Ukraine’s drone suppliers
are ramping up output of robot attack drones to an industrial scale, not
just prototypes.
Enabling the upshift is producers’ successful integration of inexpensive
computers into sophisticated, compact systems that replicate
capabilities previously found only in far pricier equipment.
Related video: Operation False Target: How Russia plotted to mix a
deadly new weapon among decoy drones in Ukraine (The Canadian Press)

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“None of this is new,” said Auterion founder and chief executive Lorenz
Meier. “The difference is the price.”
Kyiv is set to receive tens of thousands of Auterion’s miniature
computers, known as Skynode, which should hit the battlefield early next
year. Vyriy Drone, a top Ukrainian drone startup, said it would produce
several thousand autopilot drones starting this month. Other companies
are also ramping up production.
Ukraine, with a population one-quarter the size of Russia’s, is reliant
on maintaining a technological edge to hold off waves of Russian tanks
and infantry. The use of computer-controlled drones is particularly
promising as it significantly reduces the number of people needed to
carry out tasks from identifying targets to striking them. They also
offer a cheap alternative to more expensive missiles and artillery
shells that could help Ukraine maintain its defense if the new Trump
administration cuts funding.

Ukraine’s small explosive drones are already carrying out most of
strikes on the front line. The large-scale production of autonomous
drones could turbocharge Ukraine’s fight against Russia by overcoming
the biggest obstacle those drones face: Russian electronic jamming.
“The tech has moved from concept to the battlefield, but the question
is, will it exist in numbers to make an impact?” said Samuel Bendett,
senior associate in the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center
for Strategic and International Studies.
The advances also place further developments on the immediate horizon,
such as enabling one pilot to control a swarm of several drones that can
largely fly and coordinate themselves. Auterion’s technology is part of
Ukrainian startup Swarmer’s efforts to implement drone swarms, while
Vyriy is working with Sine Engineering, another new Ukrainian company.
Russia has also said it is using computer-guided drones to strike
targets. In addition, several videos have appeared online claiming to
show Russian explosive drones guided by long fiber-optic cables,
avoiding jamming and providing a clearer video feed.
Ukraine’s nimble use and adaptation of aerial drones for reconnaissance
and strikes has given it an edge over Russia since the start of the war.
Ukraine has typically innovated faster than Russia, but the Kremlin’s
advantage lies in its ability to ramp up production in its
state-directed economy once it has equipment that works.
Kyiv’s drone makers are the antithesis of modern armament producers,
which have become industrial behemoths. Ukraine’s young companies,
operating under threat of attack and tapping innovation from all corners
of society, have formed an industrial ecosystem of garage-sized
factories and converted workshops. Coordinated with government help,
many specialized in certain components, such as propellers, structural
elements and motors.
With limited supplies of artillery ammunition, Ukraine has in the past
year become increasingly reliant on explosive drones to hold back the
Russian waves. The fast, nimble craft have four rotors and are about the
size of a dinner plate. They are controlled by a pilot wearing goggles
that receive a live video feed from an onboard camera. They are known as
first-person-view drones, or FPVs, and have explosives attached that
detonate on impact.
Russia has countered Ukrainian drones primarily by using
electronic-warfare equipment that can down them by drowning out the
signal between the controller and the craft. That means that, depending
on the skill of the pilot, about one in five FPVs hit their targets,
according to pilots.
Autopilot technology negates that countermeasure by integrating the
control system into the drone via software loaded onto a cheap minicomputer.
Expensive missiles have used the technology, known as terminal guidance,
since the 1970s. Companies including Auterion and Vyriy are making it
small, cheap and smart—able even to track and hit moving targets.
Both companies’ solutions track a battlefield target using a technology
called pixel-lock, where the drone latches onto its prey using its
camera and computer, without needing to be remotely guided by an operator.
Vyriy aims for the lowest cost possible. It was founded after the
Russian invasion in 2022 by 26-year-old Oleksiy Babenko, a motorbike
fanatic who studied sociology.
His company developed software that allows a tiny, off-the-shelf
computer costing around $15 to fly the drone toward a target, using a
camera that costs about the same.
Babenko said the drones have a success rate of around nine out of 10
once autopilot is engaged but had recently encountered problems with
Russian forces using electronic jamming to cut the analog video signal
that the pilot uses to fly the craft to the strike zone.
Vyriy is seeking to overcome the issue by enabling the video feed to hop
between frequencies, as well as by developing a digital video link. The
company is seeking to keep the cost under $50.
“The best thing is that it’s very cheap,” said Babenko. “We can’t put
some high price video link.”
Almost all components for the drone are produced in Ukraine. The motors
and camera come from China, while the minicomputer comes from another
country.
Babenko and his co-founders put up $20,000 to start the company and
money has poured in from the government, military units and charity
funds who buy their drones. Ukrainian charities that source equipment
for their military have been a key partner as they don’t require much
paperwork, meaning they can buy something, give it to soldiers to test
and try something else if it doesn’t work, creating competition between
drone companies.
“Now in Ukraine, if you produce something cool you don’t need a lot of
money to make more,” Babenko said.
Virginia-based Auterion, which has supplied the Defense Department and
other federal agencies with a variety of drones for several years, is
part of Pentagon efforts to develop drones that can evade electronic
jamming. For Ukraine, it only produces Skynode, a bespoke minicomputer
the size of a small fist that already uses a digital video. The
processor goes into drones built by Ukrainian companies.
Auterion differs from many other drone-technology suppliers because
Skynode integrates a range of functions including guidance, targeting
and networking, all using fully digital communications that complicate
hacking or jamming. Meier, Auterion’s founder, compares it to how
smartphones combined tasks previously handled separately by cellphones,
digital cameras and satellite-navigation units. Because of its
versatility, it has also been used on fixed-wing strike drones, which
have a greater range, he said.


Killer Robots Are About to Fill Ukrainian Skies


Killer Robots Are About to Fill Ukrainian Skies
Skynode, which Meier said costs about as much as an Android smartphone,
replaces the computer brain in almost any drone, he said. Meier is known
in the drone world for having years ago created a variety of widely used
open-source software.
Autopilot offers a string of advantages. In standard FPVs, the link
between the controller and the drone relies on radio waves, so the drone
needs to avoid large objects that can block the signal. Ukrainian drone
teams often send up a second craft to hover in the air and relay the
signal between pilot and FPV, allowing them to operate from a bunker and
extend the range of the craft up to 15 miles. But the Russians hide
tanks and other potential targets on the far side of hills or behind
obstacles that cut the link as the drone approaches.
Using terminal guidance overcomes those issues. Autopilot mode can be
engaged roughly two-thirds of a mile from a target—well outside the
short range of jammers. Drones with autopilot can strike objects behind
hills as they don’t need to maintain a signal with the pilot in the
attack phase.
The onboard computer stabilizes the drone, meaning the pilot doesn’t
have to constantly toggle the pitch and throttle to keep it steady. One
pilot told Auterion that flying the drone and striking Russian targets
was so easy that it was boring.
Write to James Marson at james.marson-at-wsj.com and Daniel Michaels at
Dan.Michaels-at-wsj.com
--
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that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
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Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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