“Internet of Intelligent Battle Things (IOBT) is the emerging reality of warfare,” as AI and machine learning advances, says Alexander Kott, chief of the Network Science Division of the US Army Research Laboratory. He envisions a future where physical robots are able to fly, crawl, walk, or ride into battle. The robots as small as insects can be used as sensors, and the ones as big as large vehicles can carry troops and supplies. There will also be “cyber robots,” basically autonomous programmes, used within computers and networks to protect communications, fact-check, relay information, and protect other electronic devices from enemy malware.

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Even as developers are struggling with how to integrate the various pieces of the emerging internet of things, the federal government is investing millions for a five-year brainstorming project to explore how to develop and secure connected devices on the battlefield .

The Army Research Lab recently awarded $25 million to the Alliance for Internet of Battlefield Things Research on Evolving Intelligent Goal-driven Networks (IoBT REIGN) to develop new predictive battlefield analytics.

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US-based company SRI International has announced that it is leading security research for the US Army Research Lab initiative to develop and secure the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT).

Known as the ‘Alliance for IoBT Research on Evolving Intelligent Goal-driven Networks (IoBT REIGN)’, the initiative received a funding of $25m from the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in October last year.

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The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has awarded a $25 million contract to a group that includes SRI International and several universities. They will work to develop and secure the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT), as part of the IoBT Research on Evolving Intelligent Goal-driven Networks (IoBT REIGN) program. As military operations rely less on human soldiers and more on interconnected technology, the goal of the IoBT program is to understand and exploit the capabilities of networked battlefield systems and create a cyber network of things that adapts as the mission evolves. Led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the team includes SRI International and collaborators from ARL, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Massachusetts, and University of Southern California. SRI is leading security research for the initiative. The funding covers the first five years of a potential 10-year effort.

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The Army’s work on the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT) is more than just a way to carve out a catchy name for the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, cameras and embedded devices that take the field with military forces. It also underscores the most important element of having those connected devices–the data collection and automated analytics capabilities required to make good use of the information they provide.

The explosion of things connected to the Internet in everyday life and the industrial sectors has naturally led to subsets within the IoT. There are internets of Aircraft Things, Space Things, Underwater Things, and Medical Things. But like projects in other areas, the Army Research Laboratory’s $25 million IoBT project, is focused mostly on back-end processing. Being led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the project is a collaborative research alliance (CRA) looking to go beyond machines following orders to where they work almost as partners with soldiers in the field.

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Over the next 30 years, the U.S. military will find itself fighting more battles in urban areas as populations rise across the globe. Cities such as Shanghai and Beijing currently contain more than 20 million residents each, and the United Nations expects the number of “megacities” — with populations surpassing 10 million people — to increase from 28 in 2016 to nearly 50 by 2030.

Residents in those areas will use smartphones, tablets and wearable devices, and be connected to the internet. As data sources become more widespread, the proliferation of “internet of things”-enabled devices — electronic tools that use the web to interact with each other and with the physical world — offer increased benefits for situational awareness, signals intelligence and communication, military and industry leaders have said.

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Fox TV coverage of IoBT.

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Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as the Amazon Echo are becoming more and more popular with homeowners living a connected lifestyle. The US Army is now looking to implement similar technologies on the battlefield and has enlisted the help of some of the country’s top research universities.

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A team of UCLA electrical and computer engineering faculty has received nearly $4 million in research funding as part of a major Army Research Laboratory-funded initiative to develop an internet of things tailored to the specific challenges of the battlefield.

The team members –Suhas Diggavi, Mani Srivastava and Paulo Tabuada – specialize in cyber-physical systems, the technology that underpins how all the “things” are connected, how they work with each other, and the physical environment that they are embedded in.

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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will lead a programme funded by the Army Research Lab (ARL) and work on bringing Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to the US Army. This project is estimated to be worth $25m (£18.85m) and will involve six universities and a California-based independent research centre for a duration of five years.

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