Near the Ukrainian metropolis of Avdiivka, a boxy robotic zips alongside the rocky, cracked highway. Snaking backward and forward, the robotic—a four-wheeled machine, round knee top—carries cargo and ammunition for Russian troops. However, it’s being watched. Hovering above the highway, monitoring the actions of the robotic, is a Ukrainian drone. Suddenly, one other drone smashes into the robot, blowing it to pieces.

The assault, which occurred in early December and was claimed by the Ukrainian military’s one hundred and tenth Mechanized Brigade, is considered one of a small, however rising, variety of incidents the place unsophisticated robots have been used in opposition to different robots in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Aerial drones have been used to surveil or assault floor robots, troopers have connected weapons to land-based robots, and different small unmanned bots are being fitted with jamming know-how to knock drones from the sky.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, small aerial drones have performed an outsized function within the struggle in Ukraine—with thousands of drones getting used to observe the battlefield, watch enemy actions, and carry explosives. Videos produced by Ukrainian and Russian troopers present the drones, which are sometimes first-person view (FVP) drones, being used to attack tanks and troops. As the struggle has raged on, one other type of robotic has more and more appeared in latest months: the unnamed floor automobile, or UGV.

“There’s lots of unmanned ground vehicle development happening,” says Samuel Bendett, a Russia analyst on the assume tank Center for Naval Analyses, who tracks military drone and robotics technology use. Most of the UGVs being developed or used are small robots, Bendett says, as bigger autos might be tracked, noticed, and attacked with FPV and different aerial drones. “The Ukrainian battlefield is saturated with aerial sensors that basically track and attack anything that moves,” he says. That contains different robots.

The UGVs being developed inside the struggle are sometimes four- or six-wheeled machines that may be kitted out for a number of functions. There are logistics robots, which may carry provides to the frontlines; evacuation robots that carry injured individuals; and robots linked to fight, comparable to these that may place or destroy landmines and have explosives or weapons connected. These robots are largely remote-controlled by people—there’s little autonomy—and function over ranges of some kilometres.

UGVs themselves are not new. Some of the earliest UGVs had been created in World War II and used as explosive devices, whereas they’ve additionally appeared in different conflicts. Most Russian UGV developments up to now have been selfmade or DIY, Bendett says, with troops or volunteers creating robots for particular duties or wants. Ukraine has, up to now, put extra army effort into growing floor robots, with the federal government stating its ambition to construct an “army of robots.”

Videos from inside Ukraine, first shared on Telegram channels and reviewed by analysts comparable to Bendett, present a Russian drone monitoring a Ukrainian UGV because it trundles along laying mines. In one other video, a small six-wheeled robot approaches a downed drone, lifting up its wings, earlier than troops method it. A 3rd exhibits drones trying to destroy UGVs moving along the ground. In one demonstration, an individual is dragged behind a UGV along the ground. Earlier in January, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, introduced a UGV with an “automated turret” that, he stated, may transport ammunition and provisions to fighters.