AI dogs help army train to sniff out enemy

An angry mob in a village in Wiltshire throws rocks and petrol bombs towards a group of soldiers during a riot that has escalated out of control. Military dogs are unleashed to bite the thugs and force them to the ground so they can be arrested. The scenario is one that British troops trained for three weeks ago using a new virtual reality system featuring dogs powered by artificial intelligence. As part of its drive to modernise, the army is trying to exploit developing technologies to keep pace with its adversaries. Elbit Systems UK, a defence technology company, has turned animals into virtual reality in its latest attempt to find cost-effective training solutions.The virtual simulation training system, which can be deployed anywhere, was used by soldiers in the 1st Military Working Dog Regiment last month for public order training. While sitting inside portable cabins or offices wearing a headset, army dog handlers can be transported anywhere in the world, from the Arctic to sweltering deserts in the Middle East. Their virtual reality military working dogs react to the environment around them. If it is too hot, the dogs become more lethargic and need to rest in a nearby shelter. If it is too cold, they may need to be given a jacket.The virtual dogs can sniff out bombs, attack the enemy or become agitated and run away from the scene. Soldiers then have to respond to the situation in a life-like setting but one that does not require them to move from their UK base, which could save the army time and money.“AI dogs don’t always respond how you want them to, which is what happens in a normal environment. The simulation can replicate any scenario they [the dogs] could come up against,” said an expert at Elbit, who cannot be named for security reasons.
Elbit said the training provided realistic virtual scenarios, with the AI dogs behaving “as unpredictably as a dog might in real life”. This “allowed the soldiers to rehearse tactics and decision-making in virtual environments”, a spokesman said.An army source said that the training allowed handlers to carry out realistic training in an artificial environment so they could rehearse tactics and decision-making under pressurised conditions. It complemented real-life training but did not replace it, the source added.The army has more than 150 real dogs, often relying on their strong sense of smell to carry out a range of roles. Labradors and spaniels are used in detection and search roles. A mixture of German shepherds and Belgian malinois are used as patrol dogs. The army has previously tested using robotic dogs that can carry 10kg (22lb) and be deployed into enemy territory by parachutes and helicopters. Elbit Systems UK has come under attack recently from pro-Palestinian activists, who said that as a British subsidiary of Elbit Systems based in Israel it had export licences for the sale of weapons to Israel.
Activists from Palestine Action armed with sledgehammers used a repurposed prison van to smash through the gates of the company’s highly secure research, development and manufacturing centre in Bristol.