• Ukraine's battlefield robot fleet is rapidly growing and is being updated quickly.
• One maker told Business Insider it can make remote fixes in minutes and has staff always near the front.
• It said it is always updating capabilities to stay on top, and the West must learn from that speed.

Ukraine is updating its battlefield robots rapidly and remotely like smartphones.

The use of robots is surging on Ukraine's battlefields, replacing troops in roles from logistics to combat. But the war is changing so fast that, without constant upgrades, the robots can lose their effectiveness.

Oleg Fedoryshyn, director of R&D at Ukrainian robotic systems maker DevDroid, told Business Insider that the company designs its products so that they can be updated as easily as possible, "like mobile phones or operating systems.

"We can update it remotely, and we add some new features, we fix some bugs," he said, sharing that the firm updates the software used by its robots every few weeks and can make remote fixes within minutes, critical amid wartime urgency.

Working to stay relevant

It can design a new update, test it with a brigade, and roll it out across all deployed systems within a week, Fedoryshyn said. The company builds a range of combat robots, along with components that let units mount weapons like grenade launchers and machine guns.

There are limits to remote upgrades, just as there are with smartphones. The technological evolution still requires hardware updates from time to time, a bigger ask, but a necessity to keep up with the pace of change in combat.

They typically do a major modification about every six months, delivering new capabilities, such as more than doubling the distance the robot can travel.

To expedite some processes, the company deploys teams near the front line to fix damaged systems or make rapid hardware upgrades. That allows for same-day turnaround, and teams can even help evacuate disabled robots from the battlefield.

Fedoryshyn compared it to " a warranty, like when you buy a new car," and said it allows soldiers to stay focused on operations.

When the company works on a broken system, it analyzes what failed and whether upgrades are needed: "We think how to do it better."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been marked by rapid technological change, with battlefield tech constantly evolving. Ukrainian soldiers say equipment can become outdated within weeks or months.

Soldiers often adapt gear in unexpected ways, feeding back into rapid redesigns. DevDroid says it has 24/7 support chats with every unit using its systems. At 3:30 a.m., a unit can ask for help and get a response, Fedoryshyn said.

The idea to arm robots with anti-tank RPGs, now a feature that's being rolled out, first came from soldier feedback, which accelerates the iterative development process.

Lessons in speed

NATO officials have warned that Western industry and militaries need to learn from Ukraine's speed. Adm. Pierre Vandier, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, for instance, previously told Business Insider that the alliance needs Ukraine's "adaptation DNA."

The UK's armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, warned last year that Western military processes are "outdated." In Ukraine, drone tech "iterates every two to three weeks on the front line," he said, arguing that NATO must rethink how it procures weapons.

The speed of innovation has pushed defense manufacturers to design systems that are easier to update, including making them more modular and software-driven. Fedoryshyn said that was key because "it's quite easy to update software, but it's hard to update some hardware."

It's something the US Army increasingly views as critical. Leaders at its new drone school previously told Business Insider that they primarily want to work with companies that make plug-and-play gear that can be updated easily.

Maj. Wolf Amacker, who leads the Army's Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Tactics Branch at the Aviation Center of Excellence, said that when it comes to defense manufacturers, "if whatever they're building isn't modular with other industry partners to work together, then I'm going to go with another industry partner that is."

Robots are a growing part of Ukraine's military. Their usage has surged, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying they carried out more than 22,000 frontline missions in three months.

Ukraine has plans to go much further. Its defense minister this week revealed plans to contract 25,000 new robots in the first half of this year, which is double last year's total, and said that the country's goal is to eventually have 100% of front-line logistics carried out by robots.

• San José airport starts testing an AI robot called José to assist travelers.
• The pilot test launched on Tuesday amid travel chaos at many US airports.
• Some TSA workers have stopped coming into work due to a government shutdown.

One of Silicon Valley's main airports just made its newest hire, a robot named "José."

San José Mineta International Airport is turning to artificial intelligence to ease the strain of modern air travel, debuting "José," a humanoid robot, as some US airports grapple with staffing shortages and widespread delays.

Developed by Silicon Valley startup IntBot, José is designed to greet passengers, answer questions, and provide real-time updates while autonomously navigating busy terminals.

The robot will be stationed in SJC's Terminal B as part of a four-month pilot, "singlehandedly running his own gate," according to an email previewing the test that referred to José as the airport's "newest hire."

Airport officials said the launch highlights San José's role as a testing ground for emerging technologies to improve customer service.

"By piloting IntBot, we're exploring how artificial intelligence can enhance the passenger journey while reinforcing SJC's role as the gateway to Silicon Valley," said SJC Director of Aviation Mookie Patel.

The timing is notable. Airports across the US have been hit by long security lines and travel chaos, driven in part by many Transportation Security Administration workers not reporting to work during a partial government shutdown. With TSA agents going unpaid at the height of the spring break season, some airports have struggled to maintain normal operations.

José the robot represents a broader push to automate parts of the airport experience, from passenger assistance to information delivery.

SJC officials said the pilot will help evaluate how multimodal AI, combining vision, audio, and language, performs in real-world environments.

The future of air travel may include a robotic helping hand — and it can't come fast enough for weary vacationers stuck in long lines.

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• Mark Cuban thinks humanoid robots will have a short lifespan.
• He said instead robots and spaces will be co-designed, and they won't necessarily look like humans.
• Tesla and OpenAI are among the companies investing in humanoid robots.

Mark Cuban believes in a future where humans live alongside robots, just not the ones you're probably picturing.

"Everybody's making this push for humanoid robots. I think they might have a 5-year lifespan, and then they'll fail miserably. Maybe 10," Cuban said Thursday on the live-streamed tech show TBPN.

Humanoid robots have plenty of fans, including Elon Musk, who has said he believes Tesla's Optimus could be the company's future. Business Insider reported in January that OpenAI had quietly built up a humanoid robotics lab last year.

But Cuban said he thinks co-designing spaces and robots would be better than simply making robots that mimic humans and fit into the world as it currently exists.

"I've heard people say, 'Well, a house is a house, you need a humanoid.' I think houses are going to be redesigned completely," he said.

For example, he said there could be robots that look like spiders or ants, capable of lifting and carrying things, while the house could be designed so that the pantry, refrigerator, and washing machine are hidden, with the robots primarily interacting with them, while the actual living space is used by people.

"The robots aren't going to be full-form humanoids. They're going to be whatever the optimal shape is," Cuban said. "You design the house to fit the robot, and you design the robot to fit the house."

He also pointed to Amazon's use of robots in its warehouses, noting they are not humanoids carrying boxes around. Amazon has said it has over 1 million robots that sort, lift, and carry packages. None of them looks like a human.

Still, major companies like Tesla and OpenAI, as well as smaller startups, continue to invest in developing humanoids. An executive at Agility Robotics, which has deployed its humanoids at Amazon and Toyota, told Business Insider its robots could step in to fill manufacturing roles that humans don't want.

"This re-shoring of manufacturing in the US is going to only occur through a combination of human employment and automation technology, like humans and robotics," he said.

Cuban did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.