IDEAS Lab awarded 5-year defense grant to advance AI-enabled air–ground robotic collaboration
11-26-2025
Aniket Bera, Purdue University professor, was recently awarded a defense grant for the development of AI-driven, embodied robotic systems. (Purdue University photo/Brian Powell) Robotic dog photo below by Adobe.
Building robots that don’t just move. They think, learn and serve.
Purdue researchers are gearing up to give robots a new kind of intuition. Backed by a five-year, $1.5 million agreement with the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, a research team, led by Aniket Bera of Purdue University, is developing AI-enabled air–ground robots that can sense, map, and maneuver through hostile terrain without the aid of GPS systems.
This project focuses on designing intelligent robotic teams, aerial and ground robots that can assist and protect military operations. They would be able to operate autonomously and collaboratively in complex, unpredictable environments where it might be dangerous to send their human counterparts. In Army operations, soldiers often face missions in GPS-denied areas or uncertain terrains where quick decisions are vital. This research aims to create AI-enabled systems that can act as trusted robotic teammates, combining the aerial perspective of drones with the ground-level situational awareness of unmanned vehicles.
The AI principles that will be developed using this funding will support a wide range of defense applications: autonomous scouting, threat reconnaissance, logistics route planning, and tactical surveillance. By combining aerial and ground perspectives, these systems can deliver faster, safer, and more accurate situational awareness.
This project is led by Aniket Bera, associate professor of computer science and director of the Intelligent Design for Exploration and Augmented Systems (IDEAS) Lab at Purdue University. Bera serves as the Principal Investigator of this grant. The research is conducted within the IDEAS Lab, which brings together postdoctoral researchers, Ph.D. students, and undergraduate assistants working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, computer vision, and robotics. The lab specializes in developing embodied AI systems, robots that combine physical sensing, learning and reasoning to make intelligent decisions in the real world.
“Our lab focuses on building intelligent robotic systems that integrate machine learning, motion planning, and human–robot collaboration,” said Bera. “Research will take place in Purdue’s Hicks Robotics and Autonomy Testbed, a 13,000+ square-foot space equipped with humanoid robots, quadrupeds, aerial drones, and advanced sensor platforms. This environment allows seamless integration between simulation and real-world deployment, a crucial step for developing AI-enabled aerial and ground collaboration systems that must function autonomously under uncertainty.”
The IDEAS Lab collaborates with several major Purdue research initiatives that strengthen its robotics and AI ecosystem including the Institute for Physical AI (IPAI), focusing on embodied intelligence and physical autonomy, Institute for Control, Optimization, and Networks (ICON), and The Purdue Computes AI Initiative. Purdue Computes is a comprehensive university initiative that emphasizes four key pillars of Purdue’s extensive technological and computational environment — computing departments, physical AI, quantum science and semiconductor innovation.
“Purdue offers a unique ecosystem for developing embodied AI, blending deep technical expertise, cutting-edge infrastructure and strong partnerships with federal and industrial stakeholders,” said Bera. “The university provides humanoid and quadruped robots, UAV fleets, sensor arrays, and high-performance GPU clusters. Cross-campus collaborations through IPAI, ICON, and Purdue Computes foster connections between AI theorists, engineers and applied roboticists. This ecosystem enables Purdue to prototype, deploy, and operationalize AI-driven robotic systems rapidly, translating academic innovation into military and industrial impact.”
This award builds upon prior U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL)-supported research on “Terrain Intelligence and Adaptive Navigation for Autonomous Systems in Dynamic and Hostile Environments.” Earlier work from Bera’s IDEAS Lab explored single-agent autonomy and adaptive navigation in uncertain terrain. This current project will expand the research to multi-agent systems that combine aerial and ground intelligence, enabling autonomous teams that share information, coordinate plans and execute missions collaboratively. Next steps for the team include integrating adaptive learning mechanisms, performing field evaluations and scaling toward larger, more distributed robotic networks.
“This project is exciting because it bridges AI research and defense technology in a meaningful way,” said Bera. “It allows us to bring the latest advances in large-scale learning, multi-agent reasoning, and intelligent planning into physical platforms that operate autonomously in the field.”
This grant underscores Purdue’s leadership in intelligent robotics and embodied AI, systems that integrate sensing, reasoning, and action to support the missions of the future Army.
“Working with DEVCOM ARL, we are contributing to the Army’s mission of operationalize science by transitioning academic breakthroughs in AI and robotics into field-ready capabilities,” said Bera. “Our work advances the Army’s modernization goals by developing AI systems that think, adapt, and collaborate, enabling soldiers and intelligent machines to operate together safely and effectively. We are building robots that don’t just move, they think, learn, and serve.”
“I often describe our systems as a team of intelligent scouts and navigators,” said Bera. “The drones serve as the scouts, surveying the environment and providing global awareness, while the ground robots act as navigators, interpreting the terrain in detail and executing the mission plan.
The connection between them, the AI framework we design, acts like a shared nervous system. It fuses perception, communication, and decision-making, allowing these systems to operate as a cohesive unit. This aerial–ground collaboration transforms machines from isolated tools into intelligent teammates.”
This funding will also allow the IDEAS Lab to expand its team with additional postdoctoral researchers, Ph.D. students, and undergraduate researchers focused on AI-enabled autonomy.
“These researchers will work on perception, motion planning, data fusion, and control algorithms that enable safe and intelligent behavior in multi-robot teams,” said Bera. “Beyond scientific advancement, this funding also helps train the next generation of scientists and engineers who will drive AI and robotics innovation for national defense which blends computer science, machine learning, and systems engineering to create practical, trustworthy autonomy.”
This five-year, $1.5 million cooperative agreement is awarded by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL), part of the Department of Defense. DEVCOM ARL is the Army’s corporate research laboratory. The funded project, is titled “Advanced Air–Ground Teaming for Autonomous Terrain Mapping and Threat-Aware Navigation.”
About the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University
Founded in 1962, the Department of Computer Science was created to be an innovative base of knowledge in the emerging field of computing as the first degree-awarding program in the United States. The department continues to advance the computer science industry through research. U.S. News & World Report ranks the department No. 8 in computer engineering and No. 16 overall in undergraduate and graduate computer science. Additionally, the program is ranked No. 6 in cybersecurity, No. 8 in software engineering, No. 13 in systems, No. 15 in programming languages and data analytics, and No. 18 in theory. Graduates of the program are able to solve complex and challenging problems in many fields. Our consistent success in an ever-changing landscape is reflected in the record undergraduate enrollment, increased faculty hiring, innovative research projects, and the creation of new academic programs. The increasing centrality of computer science in society, academic disciplines and new research activities — centered around foundations and applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning, such as natural language processing, human computer interaction, vision, and robotics, as well as systems and security — are the future focus of the department. Learn more at cs.purdue.edu.
Written by: Cheryl Pierce, Purdue University College of Science
Contributor: Aniket Bera, associate professor of computer science and director of the Intelligent Design for Exploration and Augmented Systems (IDEAS) Lab at Purdue University
Photos by: Brian Powell and Adobe.