A move into science: robots with spatial "intuition" and pacemakers with AI

On the eve of the general meeting on May 26, the Russian Academy of Sciences noted the most significant developments of Russian scientists over the past year. Among them is an AI pacemaker that restores the proper functioning of the heart, a living skin substitute for the treatment of burn wounds, a solar telescope with more than 500 antennas, and others. Izvestia reviewed the list of achievements and prepared a selection of the most interesting ones.

A camera for the Sun and the deepest organisms

According to scientists, one of the most significant events in the Russian scientific world was the testing and commissioning of the Siberian Radioheliograph, one of the world's largest instruments for studying the Sun.

The installation allows you to observe the processes in the solar corona, predict space weather and magnetic storms. According to the scientists, this is one of the first megascience class instruments in the National Heliophysical Complex. It is being created on the basis of the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics SB RAS. The radioheliograph consists of more than 500 antennas with a diameter of 1-3 m.

— The mega-installation "photographs" the Sun in the microwave range at frequencies from three to 24 GHz. This makes it possible to observe its corona at different heights and obtain information about the density and temperature of plasma in the active regions of the star, as well as about the magnetic field in them. Using the capabilities of the installation, scientists are working to uncover one of the main mysteries of the Sun — the mechanism of heating of its corona," Sergey Anfinogentov, a leading researcher at the ISSF SB RAS, explained to Izvestia.

According to him, the first observations have already provided new knowledge about the nature of solar activity. The results have been published in dozens of scientific articles in international journals.

In addition, the Russian Academy of Sciences noted the discovery of the deepest communities of multicellular organisms. These studies were conducted by scientists from the A.V. Zhirmunsky National Center for Marine Biology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology as part of a large international cooperation.

During dives in the area of the Kuril-Kamchatka and Aleutian troughs, at depths from depths from 5800 to 9533 m, experts discovered extensive ecosystems that exist due to chemosynthesis. It is a method of nutrition in which organisms obtain energy through the oxidation of inorganic substances. Scientists consider such communities as an analog of hypothetical life in the oceans of Europa (a satellite of Jupiter) and Enceladus (a satellite of Saturn).

Pacemaker with AI and "live" skin substitutes

Another significant achievement was the development of the first domestic pacemaker that allows patients to safely undergo magnetic resonance imaging. The device expands the possibilities of accurate diagnosis of concomitant diseases, which was previously complicated by the presence of implants.

The new device is also equipped with an artificial intelligence-based system capable of automatically analyzing the work of the heart in continuous mode. If violations are detected, the device can promptly notify the doctor and independently adjust the stimulation mode to prevent a threat to the patient's life.

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Also in 2025, the N.K. Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences developed a technology for growing a skin substitute from patient cells and donor stem cells. It is used to treat the most severe deep and extensive burn wounds. Especially in cases where it is impossible to apply the patient's own tissues.

According to the proposed method, to produce the equivalent of skin, specialists use cells from a patient's skin biopsy, which requires 4-6 square meters. cm. The product is cultured in a special biomatrix for two weeks. During this time, the reservoir area increases hundreds of times.

Scientists have now completed the first phase of clinical trials. As a result, all patients had a complete restoration of the skin. The Russian Ministry of Defense has decided to implement the development and creation of production facilities on the basis of the National Medical Research Center for High Medical Technologies — the Central Military Clinical Hospital named after A.A. Vishnevsky.

Space "hyperglaze" and robots with spatial intuition

Scientists at the Federal Research Center for Informatics and Management of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed an algorithm that allows robots to navigate in an unknown environment, similar to the one intuitively used by humans and animals. It is based on an approach in which robots do not build a dense grid of obstacles (as in classical methods), but create a scheme that takes into account key points. This significantly saves computing resources.

Experiments have shown that the method is effective both indoors and outdoors. In addition, during the tests, the robots successfully restored the "image" of the terrain during the change of season, when the landmarks changed dramatically. It takes an average of half a second for the machine to recognize it.

"The development may find application in logistics, where satellite navigation is not available," Andrey Vinogradov, editor—in—chief of IT Expert magazine, commented to Izvestia. — Due to the low memory and computing resource requirements, the algorithm is able to work even in low-cost onboard computers.

Another significant achievement of Russian science according to the version of the Russian Academy of Sciences was the development of scientists from the Institute of Problems of Mechanics named after A.Y. Ishlinskiy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They have created new effective methods for processing hyperspectrometer data installed on the ISS.

— A hyperspectrometer is a device that takes pictures in narrow spectral ranges and allows you to obtain detailed characteristics of light reflection from objects. Using such a "portrait", it is possible to determine their properties with high accuracy. The scientists' task was to teach computers how to read these images correctly, clean them from atmospheric interference and compress them without losing information," Mikhail Burtsev, a senior researcher at the Space Research Institute, explained to Izvestia.

Prior to the placement of this equipment on the ISS, the main materials for remote sensing of the Earth were photographic images of the planet's surface. The advent of the device and the development of algorithms opens up opportunities to obtain accurate information about objects on Earth from space. For example, about the condition of plants in fields, the composition of water in lakes, soil contamination, or rock types.