A_Study_on_the_Advancement_of_Intelligent_Military.pdf — page 2

M. Lee et al.: Intelligent Military Drone: A Case Study of a Reconnaissance Drone
FIGURE 1. Engineering research on intelligent drones in civilian applications.
can autonomously make decisions about attacks on their own,
but rather how they can provide information to assist humans
in making the final decision regarding an attack. These ethical
issues are related to human responsibility and the role of
machines.
Given these military considerations, the research on the au-
tonomous military drones and civilian drones should progress
with different concepts. Research on military intelligent
drones is actively underway, but unlike civilian research, most
of it is not in the public domain. Therefore, this study has the
following objectives.
• First, the study examines the concepts of intelligent mil-
itary drones, considering the special nature of military
operations.
• Second, we conduct a case study on various issues that
arise in this field, viewing them from an engineer’s
perspective and discussing the intuition derived from the
case study.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Intelligent drones integrate artificial intelligence technolo-
gies to be autonomous and optimize drone functions and
operations. These drones possess capabilities beyond simple
remote control, being able to sense their environment and
respond autonomously to perform various tasks. Studies are
ongoing to utilize these advanced functionalities, but publicly
accessible information is limited. In military documentation
that is available to the public, especially regarding mixed
manned and unmanned systems, intelligent drones are often
mentioned as one player among many [4], [5], [6], [7], [8],
[9], [10]. This means that the discussion isn’t fully focused or
detailed specifically on military drones.
Papers focusing on intelligent military drones can be
broadly categorized into two types. Those centered on engi-
neering and those that are not. The latter type includes papers
discussing policies, military strategies, and ethics related to
intelligent military drones. There are diverse opinions in these
papers regarding military intelligent drones. From a negative
viewpoint, concerns are raised about ethical issues, the un-
predictability of AI, military ethics, and stability problems
[11]. Conversely, from a positive perspective, some argue
that intelligent drones, when used appropriately, can be more
objective and ethical in performing tasks than humans, who
might be influenced by emotions such as revenge or anger
[12]. Regarding making attack decisions with drones, many
papers recommend that humans should be the ones to make
the final decision. Yet, some advocate that drones could inde-
pendently make such decisions if equipped with an ethical
system [13]. While these papers provide a comprehensive
overview of various aspects of military intelligent drones,
they often lack an in-depth engineering perspective on how
to enhance the intelligent capabilities of these drones.
On the other hand, papers on intelligent military drones
from an engineering perspective in the military domain are
few [14], [15] and often lack sufficient reflection of military
specificity. In contrast, research on the intelligence of civilian
drones is progressing, as illustrated in Figure 1, which we
have personally compiled and summarized. From this point
on, the review will be based on Figure 1.
• The applications of artificial intelligence in civilian
drones are being researched for drones equipped with
sensors and systems such as Electro-Optics (EO), Infra-
Red (IR), Laser Range Finder (LRF), Light Detection
and Ranging (LiDAR), Radio Detection And Ranging
(RADAR), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS),
Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), Ultrasound, and Syn-
2
VOLUME 11, 2023
This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Access. This is the author's version which has not been fully edited and 
content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3390035
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4