Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a list of instructions for the development of unmanned autonomous systems (UAS) following a meeting held on January 16. The document is published on the Kremlin website.
The government was instructed to develop plans for the introduction of autonomous systems for each type — unmanned aircraft systems, highly automated vehicles, autonomous vessels, robots and railway equipment — with targets and determining the share of domestic developments in the Russian market. In parallel, it is necessary to create a communication infrastructure for managing, monitoring and identifying such systems in real time, as well as research centers and test sites for their certification.
A separate set of instructions concerns legal regulation. By August 1, the government, together with the State Duma, must adopt a law on highly automated vehicles. In addition, the government will have to consider the introduction of experimental legal regimes for ground-based autonomous systems on public roads and sidewalks — primarily for logistics and the housing and communal services sector. By the end of April, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with the government, should determine the criteria for the success of such experiments, after which it is planned to move on to full-fledged implementation.
Other instructions include the formation of a model for the export of Russian unmanned technologies, the creation of a system for training specialists in the industry, and the organization of a center for the development of software and hardware platforms for autonomous systems in conjunction with the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Moscow government was recommended to share its experience in the use of unmanned technologies and artificial intelligence with the regions.
