AI Articles and Analysis about Automation and robotics

Due to the popularity of our recent report on AI at the top 5 US defense contractors, we decided to broaden our scope of AI in the world's militaries. This report attempts to illuminate the current artificial intelligence projects at Europe’s largest private defense contractors.

In the past decade the number of people killed by natural disasters each year has ranged from as low as 14,389 in 2015 to as high as 314,503 in 2010, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Every year over 100,000,000 people are also affected by natural disasters. Government, companies, and aid organizations are all working to keep these tragic deaths as low as possible. One tool they have turned to for help in recent years is search and rescue robots.

wikiMany of the pivotal technologies utilized by the public today have their roots in military projects. The internet’s first successful message transfer was due to a U.S. Department of Defense-awarded contract in 1969 for the development of the “ARPANET project.” Global Positioning System (GPS) technology utilized in smartphones today was put in place and created in the 1970s for accurate military positioning, coordination, and tracking.

Lockheed Martin offers numerous artificial intelligence solutions to the US military. The company claims to help military operators effectively complete both routine and critical missions with less risk of endangering the lives of military operators. In 2017, Lockheed Martin reported $51 billion in revenue, $35.2 billion reported from contracts with the US Government. This makes Lockheed Martin the largest contractor for the US military and the largest defense contractor in the world.

Boeing offers a number of autonomous vehicles to the military, which it claims can help military operators effectively complete both routine and critical missions with less risk of endangering the lives of military operators. In 2017, Boeing Defense, the predominantly non-commercial division of Boeing that focuses on government contracts, reported 29.5 Billion dollars in revenue. This makes it the second largest defense contractor for the US military and the world. Boeing, established in 1916,  is a publicly traded company that employs over 120,000 people.

This report attempts to highlight the wide array of real-world use cases of machine vision in the military. Several militaries claim to leverage machine learning, working with contractors and companies in some cases to deliver AI solutions. We found that these solutions help highlight the wide breadth of current and near-term military applications of machine vision. The companies and organizations discussed in this report help various militaries with at least one of the following:

Accenture forecast the Industrial Internet of Things could contribute $10 trillion to the global economy by 2030. The report also suggested that sensors, material tracking mechanisms, 3D printing, automated product design, robotics, and wearables could help manufacturers reduce costs and increase productivity. Predictive asset maintenance could potentially reduce equipment and machinery maintenance costs by up to 30% and result in up to 70% fewer breakdowns.

Allied Market Research estimated the value of the global autonomous vehicle (AV) industry to reach $54.23 billion in 2019, increasing to $556.67 billion by 2026 at an annual growth rate of 39.47% during that period. It follows that AI would find its way into the autonomous vehicle world. We detailed our own timeline for self-driving cars, pooling quotes and insights from executives at the top 11 global automakers.