Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev cast his eye over innovations from residents of the Skolkovo Foundation this week at the Russian Arms Expo in Nizhny Tagil.
Belyakov, left, showing Medvedev the Skolkovo stand. Photo: sk.ru
Medvedev, who created Skolkovo as president in 2010 and remains the head of the foundation’s board of trustees, discovered that many of the solutions on display were already integrated into products and services related to civilian technology, with others possessing serious military-use potential.
“We told him that these technologies are already in use and work well,” said Skolkovo vice president Alexei Belyakov, commenting on Medvedev’s visit to the Skolkovo stand.
The prime minister had enquired as to whether the innovations were still at the prototype stage, Belyakov said.
Medvedev’s attention was focused on unmanned aerial vehicles produced by Skolkovo residents Aerob and Graviton, as well as KB Avrora, which produces driverless car technology.
He looked on as Skolkovo startup UVS-YURION presented a mobile terminal that can communicate with and control UAVs more than 100 kilometers away.
Yefimov, left, speaks to the prime minister. Photo: sk.ru
Twelve Skolkovo residents in total made the trip to the Ural Mountains city for the conference, one of the biggest international exhibitions of Russian- and foreign-made armaments. More than 400 exhibitors and representatives of military authorities — defense ministers and chiefs of general staffs — from more than 50 countries participate in the event, which attracts over 20,000 visitors.
Medvedev was also introduced to Skolkovo’s myriad solutions in robotics by the foundation’s chief roboticist, Albert Yefimov.
“In my view, a visit by the head of the government is an important event,” said Yefimov. “The very fact that Dmitry Medvedev came to the Skolkovo stand speaks volumes – and visiting our stand was the first thing he did at the exhibition.”
The message he offered Medvedev was this: “The general path for any technology is to raise its level of autonomation and intellect. This is exactly what we are doing at the Skolkovo IT Cluster in the Robotics Center,” Yefimov said.