AV NEWS: AUVSI Exponential 2018

The latest and greatest in drone technology was in Denver, Colorado this week for AUVSI Xponential. The expo showcased all things unmanned, including drones of all shapes and sizes. For three days, the Colorado Convention Center was filled with thousands of attendees interested in the unmanned industries. Though drones weren't the only technology on exhibit, they seemed to garner the most attention. That included a booth by manufacturer DJI, whose popular drones were flown throughout the expo in a fly cage. Senior Communications Manager for DJI, Michael Oldenburg said, "It's been great. I think there's 7 or 8 thousand attendees this year. Our booth has been pretty packed all week long. People are most interested in two of our newer pieces of technology with the Matrice 200 series and the brand-new XT2 thermal camera." Aside from the booths and demonstrations from over 700 vendors in the expo hall, attendees could listen to speakers or check out a number of educational sessions spread out throughout the event. AUVSI, short for Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, is a nonprofit organization with the mission of promoting and advancing the unmanned systems community. Brain Wynne, the president and CEO of AUVSI, says the conference has grown this year from previous years,"It is bigger this year. The energy is younger this year, which is kind of fun. I say that because it's making me feel older. The pace is really good. Even though this is our third day, still a lot of buzz on the show floor. Tremendous advancements that we're seeing here across the domains. Obviously pretty air-heavy, but 700 exhibitors here across maritime, ground robotics and air." While many of the drones at this year's Xponential were used for commercial purposes, the conference didn't forget about the drone racers. A course was set up inside the convention center and hosted the Uvify IDRA nationals. Team AirVuz pilot Shaun Taylor, also known as Nytfury, took home first place in the event to quality for a spot in the finals in Las Vegas. But for Taylor, one of the highlights was having conference attendees come up and ask about drone racing. "People ask me, how's racing going to help me? These guys are flying big commercial drones for way more important things than a drone race. And as far as the nerves go, can you imagine flying a $10-20,000 rig doing inspections or something? You're going to be nervous. So coming over here and racing with us, it's good experience," Taylor said. Big companies like Intel, Boeing and more had a presence at Xponential this year. The event also drew people from all over the world, with various parts of the expo floor designated for different regions of the world.mThat included the Danish delegation and Scopito, a cloud-based drone inspection software. "I think that's a huge difference from what we've seen in Europe that people are doing much larger scale operations here in the U.S. In Europe, we're still talking smaller inspections, fewer assets, where here we're talking to service providers who basically do hundreds of assets each week. That's the kind of people we want to be talking to," said Ken Falk, CEO of Scopito. Next year's Xponential conference will be taking place in Chicago. Based on just how quickly things change in the drone world, there will surely be even more exciting advancement at Xponential 2019. With how quickly things change in the drone world, there will surely be even more exciting advancement at Xponential 2019, in Chicago next May. Follow AirVūz News for more stories about the people, technology, and updates shaping the drone industry.