Ground robots serve at least eight battlefield roles, including laying mines, carrying cargo, transporting dead bodies, moving injured soldiers, de‑mining, firing at enemy positions, exploding near targets, and gathering intelligence. Ground robots can carry far more explosive mass than aerial drones, allowing heavier charges and closer approaches to enemy positions than human operators can safely achieve. The largest aerial drones carry mines around 22 pounds, while the smallest ground robots can carry more than 48 pounds and many carry more on average. Battlefield footage shows robots driving into trenches and dugouts before detonating. Units have deployed robots loaded with about 66 pounds of explosives into enemy basements.
Laying mines, carrying cargo, and transporting dead bodies: These are all ways Ukraine's soldiers are using ground robots in their fight against Russia. Oleksandr Yabchanka, the head of the robotic systems for Ukraine's Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, told Business Insider there are at least eight ways these robots are being used. In addition to the above, they're also being used to transport injured soldiers, to de-mine, to fire at Russian positions, to explode like a bomb near Russian targets, and to gather intelligence.
He said one of these uses is the "most promising" for Ukraine's forces: Its use as a bomb. That's because the robots can be piled with far more explosives than a sky drone can carry, and get closer than any human can safely. "A crucial difference between aerial and on-the-ground unmanned systems is the mass that they can carry," Yabchanka said. That's key as Ukraine needs to "always be one step, half a step ahead of the enemy in terms of the powers of destruction."
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