Army to enlist robots to pull Soldiers off battlefield
Army to enlist robots to pull Soldiers off battlefield
September 23, 2015
By C. Todd Lopez
Army to enlist robots to pull wounded Soldiers off
battlefield
One day, unmanned vehicles, similar to but larger than
this small unmanned ground vehicle, may roll onto battlefields to rescue downed
Soldiers, said the commander of the Army Medical Department Center and School.
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 22, 2015) -- Most
Americans have seen at least one war movie, where at some point a fresh-faced
young private is hit with some shrapnel. From the ground, he calls out for the
unit medic - another young guy, from another small town, whose quick reaction
and skill just may save his life.
In the near future, however, it may no longer be another
Soldier, who comes running to his side. Instead, it might be an Army-operated
unmanned aerial or ground vehicle, said Maj. Gen. Steve Jones, commander of the
Army Medical Department Center and School and chief of the Medical Corps.
"We have lost medics throughout the years because
they have the courage to go forward and rescue their comrades under fire,"
Jones said. "With the newer technology, with the robotic vehicles we are
using even today to examine and to detonate IEDs [improvised explosive
devices], those same vehicles can go forward and retrieve casualties."
Jones spoke at an Association of the U.S. Army-sponsored
medical conference near the Pentagon, Sept. 22.
"We already use robots on the battlefield today to
examine IEDs, to detonate them," he said. "With some minor
adaptation, we could take that same technology and use it to extract casualties
that are under fire. How many medics have we lost, or other Soldiers, because
they have gone in under fire to retrieve a casualty? We can use a robotics
device for that."
Jones said unmanned vehicles used to recover injured
Soldiers could be armored to protect those Soldiers on their way home. But the
vehicles could do more than just recover Soldiers, he said. With units
operating forward, sometimes behind enemy lines, the medical community could
use unmanned aerial vehicle systems, or UAVs, to provide support to them.
"What happens when a member of the team comes down
with cellulitis or pneumonia? We have got to use telemedicine to tele-mentor
them on the diagnosis and treatment," he said, adding that UAVs could be
used for delivering antibiotics or blood to those units to keep them in the
fight. "So you don't have to evacuate the casualties, so the team can
continue its mission."
SENSORS
Other technology that Jones said already exists, sensors
that could monitor a Soldier's vital signs, for instance, might also one day
make their way to the battlefield, being worn by Soldiers full time.
"Army Medical Research and Materiel Command is
actually developing physiological sensors that Soldiers can wear," Jones
said. "And in a few years, they will be able to field this. They can be
wearing the sensors and we can just monitor them. And we can do that
remotely."
The general likened the sensors to something like a
"Fit Bit," which Soldiers might wear now to monitor their heart rate
and steps taken.
"This is just a step forward that will monitor other
physiological parameters," he said. "Do they need to push more water?
How many calories have they consumed? There is a lot of information we can
provide commanders that they can use to manage their Soldiers."
The same sensors could be used to triage casualties
automatically, so that those injured Soldiers whose vital signs are the worst
are the ones who get rescued first.
"If you see a casualty whose heart rate is way up,
whose respiratory rate is way up, that may be an indication they lost a lot of
blood, and need treatment now, as opposed to a casualty whose vital signs are
stable and you wouldn't have to treat as quickly," he said.
The same sensors can also be installed on unmanned aerial
vehicles that might one day rescue Soldiers when they go down.
Jones also discussed the use of "GoPro" cameras
on Soldiers to document wounds and treatment that is administered. Such video,
he said, can be transmitted real-time to follow-on treatment facilities where
it can be used by physicians there to better understand exactly what treatment
a Soldier has already received. Additionally, such footage could be used to
provide feedback to the medics who performed the initial care to help them
improve their skills. The Army is doing something similar now, he said, through
the use of medical simulators.
"[We] train combat medics in simulators and record
treatment they provide and play it back for them," he said. "We show
them how they entered the scene, how they surveyed their casualties, how they
decided which casualty to treat or not treat. And then we talk to them about
the treatment they actually provided."
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