Military operations are relying less on humans and more on interconnected technology for situational awareness and communication, DefenseIQ reports. A network of connected sensors utilizing cloud technology embedded within biometric wearables, combat gear, and vehicles will provide soldiers with improved capabilities for identifying a neutralizing the enemy. The Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT) is closer than we think.
Lauren Saccone reports for InCompliance that Army Research Labs (ARL) is examining how smart city technology can play a role in IoBT intelligence gathering and in communication with those in the field. ARL is primarily concerned with urban environments with high levels of sensor data and communication technologies as they test the capabilities of IoBT work to discern and disseminate crucial information to soldiers on the ground. To test these theories, the Army is testing Long Range Wide Area Networks (LoRaWan) as a way to enhance the ability to transmit and receive data in urban environments. Further research into LoRaWAN could have far reaching consequences for modern warfare in urban environments.
Army Research Labs reports that research into leveraging smart cities is essential for for modern warfare and soldier application. The work of IoBT is essential for understanding and implementing the data collected by civilian and government networks of sensors, including environmental monitoring and traffic flow optimization as data points to extract useful information. Researchers at ARL (Army Research Labs), along with IoBT researchers, are looking to sensor heavy urban environments to study and implement sensor networks that are useful for government, warfare, and civilian applications. Dr. James Michaelis, ARL computer scientist, notes, “For IoBT systems to successfully utilize commercial IoT assets with minimal mission risk, expanded knowledge becomes necessary on the reliability and interoperability of commercial IoT protocols in urban environments.”
Optics.com reports that Philip Perconti, the US Army Research Lab director, spoke at the SPIE Defense & Commercial Sensing (DCS) conference about the importance of research collaboration with top universities. The development of the Internet of Battlefield Things is of paramount importance to the Army of the future, explained the director of ARL. Research will focus on multi-domain command and control as ARL and their research collaborators focus on a constantly changing digital topography and heterogenous machine learning environments.
Philip Perconti, Ph.D., director at the U.S. Army Research Lab was interviewed by Photonics Media before the SPIE’s Defense and Commercial Sensing Conference. Dr. Perconti explains, “IoBT is a collaborative research program with university and government partners designed to bring together multiple disciplines to understand, predict, adapt, and exploit the enormous collection of networked devices that are, and will be, available.” The concept of “mosaic warfare” explains the need for information from digital networks as an exceptional piece of the command and control puzzle modern commanders face as they combine information from unmanned and manned systems in changing warfare scenarios.
IoBT researchers Dr. Ananthram Swami and Dr. Brian Jalaian explain how their work with AI and deep neural networks is helping to solve the problem of adversarial network attacks for IoBT functionality. An article from Signal Magazine provides more information about how ARL is conducting research into adversarial machine learning and explores how the Army of the future is being developed by IoBT researchers now.
The Wall Street Journal published an interview with Dr. Alexander Kott, Chief Scientist of Army Research Labs (ARL) based on their “The Future of Everything” podcast. Dr. Kott is credited as the inventor of the term “Internet of Battlefield Things.” In the interview, he explains how the Internet of Battlefield Things has revolutionized ARL’s research agenda and cites some future directions for IoBT research for Army applications. He cites the development of AI as a turning point for warfare and explains the need for further exploration of AI in combat settings as an issue of trust for soldiers and researchers.
Paul Parker of C4irsnet.com argues that IoBT is revolutionizing how the U.S. Military is preparing for missions, through high-tech monitoring and sensor technology. He contends that all IT professionals should be following IoBT research with great interest as the field is evolving rapidly.
Professor Abdelzaher is interviewed about the interdisciplinary nature of IoBT for the IoT podcast by Mike Green. Dr. Adbelzaher and Mike discuss deep learning AI applications and how social media and other public modalities can provide IoT possibilities for future applications, including military applications. Dr. Abdelzaher explains how IoBT research is meeting unique mission goals through cutting-edge research.
Today’s battlefield is highly technical and dynamic. We are not only fighting people and weapons but also defending and attacking information at light speed. For mission success, the American warrior in the field and commanders up the chain need the support of highly adaptive systems that can quickly and securely establish reliable communications and deliver real-time intelligence anytime and anywhere.
