A US lab is working on an Android application which would enable troops to call in airstrikes and control drones via a smartphone. Dubbed the Android Terminal Assault Kit (ATAK), the map-based prototype app is said to be designed to “save lives.”
With all the cutting-edge standalone technologies developed for
the US military sector, one would hardly guess that the American
SpecOp units are using small laptops for positioning targets and
ordering air support on the ground.
More shocking still was the feedback that the developers of these
laptops got from the troops: many would prefer to leave them at
the base and use older hand-held GPS devices, as the little
push-button tools were clumsy, emitted too much light at night,
and once in a while crashed with Windows “Blue Screen of Death.”
This, as well as troops’ safety concerns, made Draper Laboratory
of Cambridge, Massachusetts, begin work on a fundamentally
different device for special operations, according to Emily
Vincent of the lab’s TacDroid project.
What the lab came up with after close cooperation with the Air
Force Research Laboratory and troops training on the ground
was…an Android app.
Speaking in a YouTube video presentation of the ATAK, Vincent
said that a tablet turned out to be exactly what soldiers working
under extreme pressure and possibly engaged in enemy fire needed
in the field.
“It’s one thing for a user behind a desk in a
climate-controlled office to toggle back and forth between 10
windows, deal with system crashes, and wait 60 seconds for
booting up. It’s another thing to deal with those issues while
someone is shooting at you or if you’re jumping out of a plane.
That’s where ATAK comes in,” said Laura Major, who leads
Draper’s human-centered engineering work.
What the app itself has to offer is an intuitive map-centered
interface with a handy radial menu, which lets the units place
their marks of hostile or friendly targets without even looking
at the screen.
The interface also throws away the heavy usage of forms and
typing, Vincent added, presenting the so-called “visual
nine-line.” Now the operator calling for a targeted air
strike would have to fill in just nine figures for the pilot.
These would cross-check the location of the friendly units to
avoid friendly fire. Therefore, the prototype device, which has
already been tested by a limited number of troops, “will
hopefully save some lives,” Vincent said.
According to Draper Lab, the ATAK could also be used for other
purposes, such as navigation, de-conflicting airspace, making
paratrooper landings safer, and controlling fleets of unmanned
aerial vehicles.
It remained unclear, though, how the developers are going to
solve the issue surrounding the notorious battery consumption of
the Android platform.