I believe many of us are of the opinion that the UAV/UAS industry is relatively young. Well there goes another misconception – this is the 41st AUVSI annual convention and exhibit – 41 years! With over 600 exhibitors and 8,000 attendees from 55 countries I think it is fair to say that this is one of the premier events in a market that is poised to blast off as soon as the FAA gives the go ahead. And it’s not limited to airborne platforms either. There were terrestrial and marine unmanned vehicles.
I think it is also interesting to note that the AUVSI is a trade association and that they refer to this as a trade show in places. Should the LiDAR industry investigate this model?
In the 4+ hours that I had to spend my first impression was that this was a full blown aerospace industry event. In the past this used to be primarily for the military, but it was clear that all of the vendors are looking at the commercial market as the next big opportunity. If you are thinking of getting into this business, be aware that the competition will be fierce on every level.
Riegl, Trimble, Velodyne and Esri were on the floor as well as ASC, the flash LiDAR company. One of the more interesting demos was by Parrot, the parent of the SenseFly who combined music with small flying devices and choreographed rolling robots to draw a large crowd – very creative. There were no real surprises or shock products that I saw.
For me at this stage the hardware and software are interesting, but it is really all about the regulations. I spoke with one of the key people from one of the approved FAA test sites. It’s actually a joint effort between the States of New York and Massachusetts. Unfortunately the report was not promising as he noted that the rules are still a moving target for starting any testing.
I also had an interesting conversation with one of the LiDAR vendors about finding the sweet spot for cost vs. utility. He thinks it could be as much as half a million dollars if you want LiDAR. Hmmm.
