Tag: unmanned aerial systems

Inventors Hope Investors Give Them Room to Grow

Panelists: Moderator John Langford, chairman and CEO, Aurora Flight Sciences Corp.; Joe Burns, CEO, Sensurion Aerospace; Jonathan Evans, CEO, Skyward; Ben Marcus, co-founder and CEO, AirMap; Jason Rigoli, partner, Enlightenment Capital; Richard Whittle, author, “Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution”

by David Hodes, Aerospace America contributing writer

Building the next generation of unmanned aerial systems requires educating investors and convincing them to make the leap into the industry, experts on the panel “Invention, Entrepreneurship and Unmanned Systems” said June 15 at the 2016 AIAA Demand for Unmanned Symposium in Washington, D.C.

Richard Whittle, author of the book “Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution,” said drone development kicked into gear in the early part of the century as the Predator drone transitioned from a surveillance vehicle to an armed offensive weapon shooting Hellfire missiles during the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Today, as the UAS industry hits its stride, investors are beginning to understand and court UAS businesses, said Jason Rigoli, partner at Enlightenment Capital, adding that trusting the intellectual capital inside of the industry is a big part of that growing confidence.

“The investing game is really about backing the jockey instead of the horse,” Rigoli said.

And the evolution of the UAS industry is happening fast.

“We as a business community are providing solutions ahead of problems,” said Jonathan Evans, CEO of Skyward. “There is a lot of work being done, and we need to keep giving developers the tools to do it. Democratized technology is in the hands of the end user, and we must evolve.”

Raising money is the next challenge, noted John Langford, chairman and CEO of Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. Fortunately, the unmanned space is now seeing more angel investors and other investment groups engaging with businesses, he said.

Rigoli agreed, adding, “But having a full ecosystem of development doesn’t mean capital is easy to access. It’s still hard to find an investor. When you do, it’s a marriage, and you’re stuck.”

Joe Burns, CEO of Sensurion Aerospace, said he is ready to take a meeting with every venture capitalist he can.

“We’re at a hockey-stick moment now, where you have to either make it big or have to cash out,” he said.

Burns said it’s important to focus on fundamentals — such as the business plan.

“You have to demonstrate to investors that you can sell the product,” he said.

In regards to whether small startup companies could expect to compete with Google, Facebook or Amazon, Evans said: “I think that those companies are sensitive to anti-trust issues. They seem to have the attitude of ‘Let’s let this startup eco system grow first.’”

 

All 2016 AIAA AVIATION Forum Videos

Industry and Commerce Working Toward Safe, Beneficial UAS Traffic Management

by David Hodes, Aerospace America contributing writer

Panelists: Moderator Gretchen West, senior adviser of innovation and technology, Hogan Lovells, and advisory board member, Drone World Expo; Sean Cassidy, director, Strategic Partnerships, Amazon Prime Air; David Famolari, director, Verizon Ventures; R. John Hansman, T. Wilson professor of aeronautics and astronautics and director of the International Center for Air Transportation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Parimal H. Kopardekar, manager, Safe Autonomous System Operations Project, and principal investigator, Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management, NASA’s Ames Research Center; Craig Marcinkowski, director of strategy and business development, Gryphon Sensors; Peng Wei, assistant professor of aerospace engineering, Iowa State University

Managing the airspace traffic for unmanned aerial systems will take a coordinated effort from industry and government to keep the systems flying safely as well as to provide the benefits of such things as package delivery, panelists said June 16 at the 2016 AIAA Demand for Unmanned Symposium in Washington, D.C.

In the panel, “UAS Traffic Management System,” Parimal H. Kopardekar, manager of the Safe Autonomous System Operations Project and a principal investigator for Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management at NASA’s Ames Research Center, said the goal of NASA is to safely enable large-scale operations in the National Airspace System.

He said NASA must offer airspace operations guidance and performance roles for UAS operators while getting UAS suppliers to work with regulators.

Sean Cassidy, director of strategic partnerships for Amazon Prime Air, said the concept of operations includes the vehicle.

“You have to have a vehicle with performance levels commensurate with the operations,” he said. “You have to know how it reacts to others in the airspace.”

Good airspace operations, according to Cassidy, means you have to have vehicle-to-vehicle communication and some kind of standardization of controller-to-controller protocols.

“Having independent technology is a good thing in the short term,” he said. “But you need a coherent framework about what [UAS traffic management] means to you.”

Cassidy said Amazon is considering implementing a receiver for drones to land on that is aware of the traffic under 500 feet.

“We don’t have that option for the FAA to take time to develop standards,” he said. “This is the first time where speed is our friend.”

John Hansman, T. Wilson professor of aeronautics and astronautics and director of the International Center for Air Transportation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said there is a lot of confusion about what UAS traffic management, or UTM, is.

“There is no real concept of operation yet,” he said.

But one of the basic concepts of UTM, Kopardekaer said, is that we need to understand what is involved in going beyond line of sight.

“You want to know the constraints,” he said. “That is what this traffic management system will do.”

All 2016 AIAA AVIATION Forum Videos

Treggon Owens: UAS Set to Transform Aerospace and the World

Speaker: Treggon Owens, founding partner and CEO, Aerial MOB

by Lawrence Garrett, AIAA Web Editor

Unmanned aerial systems – drones – soon will transform the aerospace industry and the world, and will one day be everywhere, predicted Treggon Owens, founding partner and CEO of Aerial MOB, an unmanned aerial services company.

While Aerial MOB is best known for making movies with drones through its unique ability to connect many elements in 3-D space in one continuous shot, Owens explained, the company has recently been expanding beyond film and tv productions.

In 2015, he said Aerial MOB participated in an unmanned military training exercise at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, that demonstrated the capturing of a forward operating base.

As Owens explained, a drone was used for initial reconnaissance, and that data was used to make a 3-D model of the target area in real-time. Then, another ground-based robot was sent in to look for bombs, and a bomb-diffusion robot was sent in to disarm all explosives so that people could go in and take the base.

Owens said this is the direction his company is headed.

“I think that’s the future of aerospace … a collaboration between ground, air, sea [and] humans,” he said. “We’re all going to be coming together [from different disciplines], and that’s what’s going to create the beauty with drones.”

We’re sure to see other aspects of life affected by UAS, Owens said. Since drones allow for closer data collection, they could do power station inspections and power line surveys. Drones also could perform delivery services and aid in construction planning.

“I don’t think that you’ll see the hub and spoke model that everyone’s conceptualizing out there, of delivery drones, but it’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen quickly,” he said. “You’re going to see mail trucks that have drones coming out of them.”

The fastest-growing segment in the drone world and where most of the innovation is happening, according to Owens, is drone racing. In these races, drones can reach speeds up to 90 mph. He said this segment of the industry needs help and that there’s huge market opportunities for aerospace companies.

“There’s continuous need and a beautiful new opportunity for all of you guys to break out of the big aerospace and go and start your companies,” he said. “I highly encourage you guys to go take giant risks and have a lot more fun.”

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All 2016 AIAA SciTech Forum Videos