MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. Russia will increase the number of its Earth observation satellites, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

On Thursday, the president visited Applied Technologies of Artificial Intelligence, an exhibition of advanced artificial intelligence solutions held as part of the Artificial Intelligence Journey 2022 international conference. He was briefed about projects in various spheres, including on environmental monitoring of remote areas. The project’s authors lamented that "the only serious obstacle <...> is access to satellite imagery," because they currently have to rely only on open-access foreign data. Therefore, they requested the president to make Russian satellite images - both present-day and archived ones - more accessible.

"We are certainly going to increase the [satellite] constellation," the president said, adding that the request was "heard and understood."

Another technology shown to the president helps to save fuel while cultivating fields by creating an optimal route for farming equipment.

Putin was also shown a presentation of the joint project by Russian truck maker KamAz and Eidos Robotics, the Eidos industrial robot for arc welding using AI technologies.

"Regretfully, industrial robotic technologies are far less frequent in Russia than in South Korea," he said, adding that Russia now has a chance to fix that.

"The current situation forces us to produce everything on our own rather than buy at a bargain," the president added.