93% of route without operator: "Lava" regiment conducts first autonomous mission with UGV controlled by artificial intelligence. VIDEO
Drone Industry
The "Lava" Unmanned Systems Regiment, part of the National Guard of Ukraine’s 2nd "Khartiia" Corps, conducted an autonomous logistics mission using an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) equipped with artificial intelligence. This is the first mission of its kind in combat conditions.
The regiment reported this on social media, according to Censor.NET.
Details of the autonomous journey
By integrating AI with the UGV platform, the vehicle covered 93% of a 20-kilometer route without operator control. The operator took over for only a 1.4-kilometer stretch.
The "Lava" regiment explained how the technology works: first, a dedicated UGV travels the route and scans the terrain using lidar (a technology that measures distances using laser pulses) to create a 3D model.
The main vehicle then navigates using this model: cameras identify the road, roadsides and obstacles in real time, while AI makes decisions. The operator can adjust the route and set speeds for individual sections, but continuous manual driving is no longer necessary.
"This mission showed that autonomous ground systems are already ready for real combat conditions. The most important change is that the operator stops being a driver and becomes a dispatcher. Rather than driving the vehicle every second, the operator monitors its movement and intervenes only where necessary. The ultimate goal is one dispatcher managing several UGVs simultaneously," said Andrii "Matematyk" Kopach, commander of the "Lava" regiment’s UGV battalion.
The software solution is being developed by Apex AI. The "Lava" regiment contributed to defining the technical requirements and conducting field tests.
New missions
The "Lava" regiment expects evacuation to be a possible next step.
"When UGVs like these enter widespread use, personnel will be able to carry out significantly more trips. It is also important that UGVs equipped with AI are less dependent on a continuous control link – for example, Starlink," Matematyk said.
According to the report, "Lava" continues to develop autonomous missions and plans to scale up the technology for evacuation and combat tasks.
Background
The 21st "Lava" Unmanned Systems Regiment of the National Guard’s 2nd "Khartiia" Corps carries out combat missions in the Kupiansk and Kharkiv sectors. The regiment brings together aerial reconnaissance and strike drones, unmanned ground vehicles, an ISTAR system and its own R&D laboratories into a single organism that provides a technological advantage on the battlefield.
