Ukraine's soldiers want drones that do more on their own so one operator can control more at once

Ukraine's soldiers want drones and robots that can handle more of the flying and driving themselves, letting one operator oversee multiple systems instead of manually controlling each one.

Ukraine's rapidly expanding arsenal of aerial drones and ground robots has become central to its fight against Russia's larger military. Defense technology companies say they're increasingly automating certain tasks while keeping humans responsible for decisions about using force.

In practice, that means shifting more routine work from the operator to the drone. Newer systems can increasingly navigate, return to base, and help identify targets independently, allowing operators to focus on other tasks, from target confirmation to swarm control.

Mykyta Rozhkov, the chief business development officer at Ukrainian defense technology company Frontline Robotics, told Business Insider that his company's innovation has come from soldier' requests.

"Our soldiers are coming to us with a request of: 'How can you provide us with the capability to have different robots controlled by one person?' or 'Can we make a shift of our UAV pilots easier?'"

The company responded to these requests by developing software that lets drones handle more of the flight themselves, including traveling to and from an area of interest with minimal input.

"In the new version of a drone that we produce right now and supply, there is an autonomy layer installed in the drone itself," Rozhkov explained. "So it can go autonomously to the area of interest, then come back with basically one button."

A "pilot can bring the system home with a push of a button," and the drone can figure out the shortest way back, he said.

Autonomy is also being built into the company's product updates. The latest version of its Linza drone — the 3.0 released this year — has more onboard autonomy, so it can operate when GPS is unavailable because of Russian electronic warfare.

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It puts less "mental demand on a soldier so they can do more stuff." It took eight months to develop, but it offers "a huge upper hand," Rozhkov said.

Frontline's Zoom reconnaissance drone also has AI navigation, so it can work when it loses satellite navigational signals.