A top-secret US government body called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a new initiative aimed at transforming battlefield trauma care through the use of autonomous robotic systems.
The Medics Autonomously Stopping Hemorrhage (MASH) program seeks to address one of the most lethal and complex medical challenges on the battlefield: non-compressible torso hemorrhage.
According to DARPA, internal bleeding in the torso—often untreatable by frontline medics due to its location and complexity—remains a leading cause of preventable death among U.S. warfighters.
The MASH program will develop robotic systems that can locate and stop internal bleeding with minimal human intervention, potentially stabilizing patients for 48 hours or more, long enough to evacuate them for advanced surgical care.
“We owe it to our warfighters to give them the best possible chance of survival,” said Dr. Adam Willis, MASH program manager. “In large-scale conflicts, many warfighters die from injuries that could be survivable if they could get to a surgeon quickly.”
The MASH concept relies on advanced sensors, artificial intelligence, and robotic tools integrated into a system capable of autonomously identifying and stopping internal bleeding in the abdomen. In a statement, DARPA said the approach is comparable to “developing a GPS for the inside of the human body” that can navigate around organs to pinpoint the source of bleeding and deploy life-saving interventions in harsh combat environments.
“The real challenge is finding that bleed,” Willis said. “Imagine navigating a complex landscape of organs and blood inside the torso to find the exact spot that needs attention.”
While traditional tourniquets and field dressings are effective against external wounds, internal bleeding in the torso requires surgical-level intervention—something usually unavailable in the first hours after injury. DARPA’s MASH program is designed to fill that gap with systems that can function in austere and chaotic conditions.
“It’s like developing a GPS for the inside of the human body to position existing tools to precisely stop the bleed, under extreme circumstances,” Willis added.
DARPA says the system is intended to be as user-friendly in combat settings as automated external defibrillators (AEDs), which allow non-specialists to restart the heart after cardiac arrest.
The three-year program will be conducted in two phases. The first phase focuses on integrating advanced sensors with robotic platforms to detect internal bleeding. The second phase will involve the development of autonomous software capable of controlling robotic tools to intervene and halt hemorrhaging.
As noted by the agency, MASH aims to make advances in both trauma care protocols and robotic surgical capabilities, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in field medicine.
Researchers and developers interested in contributing to the effort are invited to participate in a virtual proposers day hosted by DARPA on September 18, 2025. Registration details are available through the official government contracting site, SAM.gov.