Hello, Blog World,
On a hot sunny day where I thought I would melt, I hopped into a car and went on my way to the AUVSI Xponential Conference & Expo 2022. We had arrived in Orlando on Saturday and and KwF Intern, Daan from the Netherlands joined us on Sunday. I was glad that this time someone would be at least closer to my age, even though Daan is 6 years older than I am. So let's absorb our minds to learn about how air, ground, and sea robots have evolved.
Have you ever wanted something you ordered to be at your house in a few minutes? I know I have! Every time I order a squishy banana, it falls off the cargo ship into the ocean! But, DroneUp can help you get things within minutes. Partnered with Walmart in Virginia DroneUp uses drones to deliver products. Daan and I met with the CEO of DroneUp, Tom Walker. He even invited us to visit their test flights in southern Virginia. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to visit soon. Now let's think about an example of what good delivery drones can do. Imagine you are starving and you want to order food fast! With Uber Eats or Grub Hub it can take 45 minutes - 1.5 hour to get your food, but with DroneUp that can happen within 30 minutes or less, depending on how fast the cooks can make your food. Share your comments on how else drone delivery can be used for you?
Not at AUVSI Expo, but I had a chance to visit a thermal composites manufacturing company called Rapid Composites in Sarasota. It wasn't my first time at the facility, but probably the first time I understood more about the technologies being used. Alan Taylor, is the founder and CEO of Rapid Composites and he was so nice to give us a very detailed tour! I loved meeting his alligators and crocodiles on my previous visit. At that time, I thought it wasn't going to be very useful to learn about the different materials or how the machines work. But I lucked out when I saw the Outlaw Sea Hunter drone by Griffon Aerospace at AUVSI! With a wingspan of 21' the SeaHunter, made of high-temperature carbon fiber composite molded-in precision production tooling, mostly caught my attention! Griffon Aerospace is a multi-talented small business based in Madison, AL. The primary business focus is on unmanned aircraft systems and advanced composite manufacturing. Operating under the AS9100D quality management systems, Griffon has produced over 7000 unmanned air vehicles for various customers from US DoD, Foreign Military Sales, Commercial Businesses, and University research labs. Their best aircraft is called the SeaHunter. It is a US army drone. It can also be customized! This drone reminded me of Eagle Ray a drone made by KwF to fly in the Himalayas to save snow leopards.
Moving from air to land meet Boston Dynamics displayed Spot, a dog robot costing $74,500. The spot is not a house pet or a toy for entertainment, it's a four-legged robot that can walk up to three miles per hour, climb terrain, avoid obstacles, see 360 degrees, use an attached arm, and perform several programmed tasks. Now that's a handful of gadgets. Personally to me, it looks creepy. But I think Spot could help us guard beaches and watch for poachers who are trying to steal sea turtle eggs, I’m sure poachers will get creeped out by Spot too!
Now from land let’s dive into the sea. Let me introduce Seaperch, it is an innovative underwater robotics program, that provides the tools for teachers and students to build an aquatic robot. Students create these machines from a tool kit of easy-to-use pieces and instructions to make their robot. It's an efficient use of free time and a great hands-on educational project for kids. It was my favorite booth at AUVSI because I got to drive a marine bot! I think they could use underwater robots to watch for fishing nets and injured sea turtles. If they attached an arm, they could program the robot to bring the injured sea turtles to safety!
This year at AUVSI I got to see more booths, but I could only talk about so many. This year I better understood how everything is intertwined. I learned about solar powered drones that can catapult. For example, there was a drone made in Spain that was launched from a boat. A catapult is a replacement for a runway. In areas that don’t have a runway, a catapult can be a great way to take off. I learned more about ground robots that can be used for inspecting suspicious packages and environments for hazardous materials or explosives, assessing hostile threats remotely, and searching structurally dangerous environments in emergency response scenarios.
Here are some photos from companies I visited. I did stop by to say "Hi" to my friends at Samtec and they gave me an addition to my tiger collection. I also checked to see what Pix4D had made this year. It was nice to meet people I met last year and learn about the progress their companies are making.
I enjoyed my time at AUVSI and hope that next year I can learn even more. I wanted to thank my special supporter Kelly Carnes at AUVSI for providing me with a Press Pass and Rob Thompson for making that connection for the 2nd year! Until next time, I'll be reporting from Colorado at the AUVSI 2023 Conference & Expo.
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”-Walt Disney
Great post. It looks like you are learuing so much and having fun.
Hello again Kashmir. what a pleasure it is for me to see all you are doing and how you are growing up! I think by the next blog post you will be as tall as mom! Its great to see all the things you are involved in and learning, from art to ice skating, gardening to animals and drones!! Keep it up!! See you this fall ! / doug
Hi Kashmir. This is a fantastic blog post. Some great photos here that I have looked over and tonight I plan to read all. Congratulations!