Ukraine’s developers are equipping war robots with microphones and speakers to allow them to serve as mobile spies against Russia, to urge Russian soldiers to surrender, and to talk with their own comrades who need help.
Ukraine is increasingly using uncrewed ground vehicles to launch attacks, transport equipment, pick up wounded troops, and lay mines, while operators control them remotely from protected positions farther from danger.
They’re also being used more and more for front-line communication and intelligence gathering.
Robots in Ukraine’s rapidly growing fleet often include microphones, which can be used to detect Russian troops and weapon systems nearby.
Increasingly, the robots are also equipped with speakers that can talk to soldiers, allowing Ukrainians in dispersed fighting positions to communicatea nd ask for help, and even to try to persuade Russian soldiers to give up their fight.
DevDroid, a Ukrainian developer, recently started putting speakers on its robots that can play live and pre-recorded audio because sometimes “we need to say something to the enemy or maybe to our soldiers,” Oleg Fedoryshyn, its director of R&D, told Business Insider.
Russian soldiers have been filmed surrendering to Ukrainian war robots, including some made by DevDroid. Other Ukrainian companies, like Roboneers, have also shared examples of their robots broadcasting surrender messages to Russian soldiers. Some Ukrainian units also say they have successfully played audio telling Russian soldiers to surrender from speakers on the aerial drones.
Fedoryshyn said the speakers also allow Ukrainian soldiers to request ammo or relay critical status updates to their comrades. Robots, he said, can serve as a communication bridge when radios aren’t an option. Tools like these have been used to communicate with trapped soldiers and wounded troops being transported out.
Microphones are a more established feature that Devdroid puts on all of its UGVs, Fedoryshyn said. He said they’re “very useful,” turning ground robots into combat tools that can listen as well as watch for the enemy and giving Ukrainian units better intel to inform their actions.
DevDroid says its tech streams audio from the robot’s onboard microphones back to the operator, giving them “valuable situational awareness by hearing the environment around the platform,” providing more than they can learn from the onboard cameras alone. Cameras can monitor areas and be used to assess the health of a wounded soldier, but terrain, like tall grass, can impact visibility.
DevDroid says that “ambient sound can reveal the movement of personnel or vehicles and other activity that may remain outside the cameras’ field of view.”
This kind of intelligence gathering is a newer role for Ukraine’s ground robots. The fight evolves so quickly that tactics and weapons can become outdated within weeks, forcing constant updates. Ukraine’s defense industry is always adding new features.
Ukrainian weapons makers like DevDroid work closely with soldiers and units to ensure systems are relevant. Fedoryshyn said that the company has 24/7 support chats with every unit that uses its systems. He said units can ask for help at 3:30 a.m. and get a response, including remote fixes to some issues within minutes.
He said that the company can design a new update, test it with a brigade, and roll it out across all deployed systems within a week. It designs its gear in a way that allows it to be updated as easily as possible, “like mobile phones or operating systems.”
As a result, troops get robots with improved intelligence-gathering capabilities or the ability to fire weapons like anti-tank RPGs. Such capabilities were added in response to soldiers’ requests.
Ukraine is growing its fleet of war robots while increasingly reassigning missions once carried out by humans to machines. Kyiv, for instance, has said it wants front-line logistics performed entirely by robots.
Western allies are boosting their ground robot capabilities in response to what they’re seeing in Ukraine’s conflict. Fedoryshyn mentioned that these vehicles might be essential in future wars. While advanced tanks and armored vehicles offer more power, they are costly and take longer to replace. In contrast, robots are “quite cheap” and much easier to produce.
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