https://www.npr.org/2024/07/15/nx-s1-5039839/ukrainian-startups-low-cost-robots-to-fight-russia Accessibility links * Skip to main content * Keyboard shortcuts for audio player * Open Navigation Menu * NPR logo * * Newsletters * * NPR Shop * Close Navigation Menu * Home * News Expand/collapse submenu for News + National + World + Politics + Business + Health + Science + Climate + Race * Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture + Books + Movies + Television + Pop Culture + Food + Art & Design + Performing Arts + Life Kit + Gaming * Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music + Tiny Desk + Hip-Hop 50 + All Songs Considered + Music Features + Live Sessions * Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily + [morning-ed] Morning Edition + [we_otheren] Weekend Edition Saturday + [we_otheren] Weekend Edition Sunday + [all-things] All Things Considered + [fresh-air] Fresh Air + [up-first] Up First Featured + [podcast-po] The NPR Politics Podcast + [throughlin] Throughline + [trumps-tri] Trump's Trials + [tile-wild-] Wild Card with Rachel Martin + More Podcasts & Shows * Search * Newsletters * * NPR Shop * NPR Music NPR Music * Tiny Desk * Hip-Hop 50 * All Songs Considered * Music Features * Live Sessions * About NPR * Diversity * Support * Careers * Press * Ethics Ukrainian startups are creating a low-cost robot army to fight Russia An ecosystem of labs in hundreds of secret workshops is leveraging innovation to create a robot army that Ukraine hopes will kill Russian troops and save its own wounded soldiers and civilians. [2022-03-01] Special Series Ukraine invasion -- explained The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep. The current conflict is more than one country fighting to take over another; it is -- in the words of one U.S. official -- a shift in "the world order." Here are some helpful stories to make sense of it all. Ukrainian startups are creating a low-cost robot army to fight Russia July 15, 20243:08 AM ET By The Associated Press Andrii Denysenko, CEO of design and production bureau Andrii Denysenko, CEO of design and production bureau "UkrPrototyp," stands by Odyssey, an 800-kilogram (1,750-pound) ground drone prototype, at a cornfield in northern Ukraine on June 28, 2024. Facing manpower shortages and uneven international assistance, Ukraine is counting heavily on innovation at home to halt Russia's incremental but pounding advance in the east. Anton Shtuka/AP hide caption toggle caption Anton Shtuka/AP NORTHERN UKRAINE -- Struggling with manpower shortages, overwhelming odds and uneven international assistance, Ukraine hopes to find a strategic edge against Russia in an abandoned warehouse or a factory basement. An ecosystem of laboratories in hundreds of secret workshops is leveraging innovation to create a robot army that Ukraine hopes will kill Russian troops and save its own wounded soldiers and civilians. Defense startups across Ukraine -- about 250 according to industry estimates -- are creating the killing machines at secret locations that typically look like rural car repair shops. Employees at a startup run by entrepreneur Andrii Denysenko can put together an unmanned ground vehicle called the Odyssey in four days at a shed used by the company. Its most important feature is the price tag: $35,000, or roughly 10% of the cost of an imported model. Neak, a 43-year-old Ukrainian graffiti artist, mixes green paint at a workshop in Kyiv, Ukraine. His ETC graffiti crew works to camouflage cars to be sent east to the front line of the war with Russia. The Picture Show How these Ukrainian artists are using their talents to support the war effort Denysenko asked that The Associated Press not publish details of the location to protect the infrastructure and the people working there. The site is partitioned into small rooms for welding and body work. That includes making fiberglass cargo beds, spray-painting the vehicles gun-green and fitting basic electronics, battery-powered engines, off-the-shelf cameras and thermal sensors. The military is assessing dozens of new unmanned air, ground and marine vehicles produced by the no-frills startup sector, whose production methods are far removed from giant Western defense companies'. Serhii, chief engineer of design and production bureau Serhii, chief engineer of design and production bureau "UkrPrototyp," works on model of a a car-sized 800-kilogram (1,750-pound) prototype drone in the north of Ukraine on June 27, 2024. Anton Shtuka/AP hide caption toggle caption Anton Shtuka/AP A fourth branch of Ukraine's military -- the Unmanned Systems Forces -- joined the army, navy and air force in May. Engineers take inspiration from articles in defense magazines or online videos to produce cut-price platforms. Weapons or smart components can be added later. "We are fighting a huge country, and they don't have any resource limits. We understand that we cannot spend a lot of human lives," said Denysenko, who heads the defense startup UkrPrototyp. "War is mathematics." One of its drones, the car-sized Odyssey, spun on its axis and kicked up dust as it rumbled forward in a cornfield in the north of the country last month. Firefighters try to put out a fire after two guided bombs hit the Epicenter shopping complex in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, May 25, 2024. The sign reads Ukraine invasion -- explained Russia wages a scorched-earth war in Ukraine with retrofitted bombs and new airstrips The 800-kilogram (1,750-pound) prototype that looks like a small, turretless tank with its wheels on tracks can travel up to 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) on one charge of a battery the size of a small beer cooler. The prototype acts as a rescue-and-supply platform but can be modified to carry a remotely operated heavy machine gun or sling mine-clearing charges. "Squads of robots ... will become logistics devices, tow trucks, minelayers and deminers, as well as self-destructive robots," a government fundraising page said after the launch of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces. "The first robots are already proving their effectiveness on the battlefield." Mykhailo Fedorov, the deputy prime minister for digital transformation, is encouraging citizens to take free online courses and assemble aerial drones at home. He wants Ukrainians to make a million of flying machines a year. "There will be more of them soon," the fundraising page said. "Many more." Denysenko's company is working on projects including a motorized exoskeleton that would boost a soldier's strength and carrier vehicles to transport a soldier's equipment and even help them up an incline. "We will do everything to make unmanned technologies develop even faster. (Russia's) murderers use their soldiers as cannon fodder, while we lose our best people," Fedorov wrote in an online post. Ukraine has semi-autonomous attack drones and counter-drone weapons endowed with AI and the combination of low-cost weapons and artificial intelligence tools is worrying many experts who say low-cost drones will enable their proliferation. Technology leaders to the United Nations and the Vatican worry that the use of drones and AI in weapons could reduce the barrier to killing and dramatically escalate conflicts. Human Rights Watch and other international rights groups are calling for a ban on weapons that exclude human decision making, a concern echoed by the U.N. General Assembly, Elon Musk and the founders of the Google-owned, London-based startup DeepMind. "Cheaper drones will enable their proliferation," said Toby Walsh, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. "Their autonomy is also only likely to increase." * Ukraine invasion * drones * artificial intelligence * Facebook * Flipboard * Email [2022-03-01] Special Series Ukraine invasion -- explained Read & Listen * Home * News * Culture * Music * Podcasts & Shows Connect * Newsletters * Facebook * Instagram * Press * Public Editor * Corrections * Contact & Help About NPR * Overview * Diversity * NPR Network * Accessibility * Ethics * Finances Get Involved * Support Public Radio * Sponsor NPR * NPR Careers * NPR Shop * NPR Events * NPR Extra * Terms of Use * Privacy * Your Privacy Choices * Text Only * Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor