Hexagon US Federal’s Rob Mott: AI Key to Delivering Geospatial Intelligence to Combat Units

Rob Mott, a vice president at Hexagon US Federal, wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday on C4ISRNET how artificial intelligence could help defense and intelligence agencies collect and transmit geospatial intelligence data to soldiers on the battlefield amid challenging conditions.

He discussed how AI could deliver situational awareness to soldiers in real time and help troops improve the generation of courses of action as well as augment monitoring and surveillance activities.

“By improving the ability to predict a target’s behavior based on analysis of historical patterns, current trends and dynamic factors (such as weather and adversarial behavior), AI can help determine the most suitable method and location for the deployment of assets for performing surveillance,” Mott wrote.

Mott described the role of AI in fielding tactical drones, which could be used to produce a digital representation of the battlefield.

“AI capabilities at the edge, essentially on drones, could generate valuable intelligence in near-real time and further enhance the effectiveness of the collection,” he noted. “Some of these examples include calculating immediate change detection readouts between flights or data sets, automating the identification of vehicles, or even creating the ability to recognize and count the number of humans on the ground instantly, and then making immediate onboard adjustments in the collection parameters.”