Aerial AI project aims to save lives on the battlefield

Information about the condition of battlefield casualties could be improved by ATRACT, a project led by Edge Hill University to develop an AI-enabled autonomous triage drone.

Funded by EPSRC, ATRACT (A Trustworthy Robotic Autonomous system to support Casualty Triage) will see the development of a flying drone that can assist and speed up triage in the critical post-trauma minutes that are crucial to surviving battlefield trauma. The £850,000 project concludes in 2026.

In a statement, Ardhendu Behera, Professor of Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence (AI) said: “When completed ATRACT will be a reliable drone-driven autonomous system that can help frontline medics in decision-making in the ‘platinum ten minutes’ following trauma.”

The project is being developed in reaction to changes to the modern battlefield that make evacuation by helicopter impossible.

Professor Behera said: “In the Vietnam War, American evacuation helicopters transformed soldier survivability with the emergence of the ‘Golden Hour’, using superior air power to evacuate casualties quickly and effectively.

“However, as seen in Ukraine the use of low-cost, accurate, shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles has significantly disrupted helicopter operations, presenting a heightened risk to casualty evacuation operations.

“Moreover, frontline army medics are often required to monitor multiple casualties and prioritise them based on the severity of injuries. There is an urgent unmet need for enhancing casualty survival in a warzone where conventional helicopter evacuations simply aren’t possible.”

Project ATRACT is being carried out with support from Loughborough University, and the Universities of Brighton and Portsmouth.

The project will focus on four main objectives that represent major innovations in the use of AI and RAS (robotics autonomous systems), helping to advance technologies while remaining part of the same project.

“Our previous studies of AI used for healthcare and autonomous vehicles applications revealed the gaps in the knowledge and understanding,” said Professor Behera.

“In this interdisciplinary project, a truly transformative approach will be taken to bring the UK to the forefront of research on trustworthy AI and RAS technologies for national security and defence. It will also bring about potential commercial opportunities, as well as social and economic benefits.

Dr Khizer Saeed from Brighton University’s School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering said: “Each of the elements of the project represents a significant development in drone technology and artificial intelligence that will enhance research and development for a huge range of other projects around the world. We hope to one day see drones like ATRACT helping in natural disasters and terrorist attacks where saving time is key to saving lives.”

The first stage is to develop advanced sensors so that ATRACT can accurately search for injured soldiers using visual and thermal imaging data while still manoeuvring over and around challenging terrain.

The second and third objectives are focussed on the data ATRACT collects. The research team will combine advanced multimodal AI sensing and advanced algorithms to detect the location of frontline soldiers and provide real-time monitoring of soldiers' injury severity and their vital signs for effective triage management.

Finally, ATRACT will have to provide real-time casualty information to a medical team as it approaches, enabling more effective resource management and casualty prioritisation, thereby reducing time on the ground, and minimising risks to frontline medics.

The research team will also incorporate the laws of war, medical ethical principles and UK Ministry of Defence AI and Autonomy ethical principles at every stage of the project.