VOLUME 37 NO.

6 | SEPTEMBER 2019

REGULATIONS
& UXVS

MARITIME
ROBOTICS

28
ON THE COVER

REGULATORY
SMORGASBORD

32
MANAGING
AUTONOMY

36
ONE INDUSTRY.
ONE VOICE.
Every day, members of Congress work on legislation that can either boost or hinder
the advancement and deployment of unmanned and autonomous systems. The
annual AUVSI Hill Day is an opportunity for the entire industry to come together
and declare, with one unified voice, how unmanned technology is making a positive
impact on local communities and economies across the country.

Join us at Hill Day and take advantage of the opportunity to educate your
lawmakers and advocate for your business.

Register now at auvsi.org/hillday

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 | Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC

STAFF CENTRAL
REGULATION IS NECESSARY
TO ADVANCE UNMANNED SYSTEMS
In a recent analysis, just 10 percent
of the unmanned aircraft systems
included in AUVSI’s Unmanned
Systems and Robotics Database are
equipped with navigation systems and
communication links, which extend
over long distances, that enable UAS
to fly beyond line of sight (BLOS). While
the BLOS technology has existed for
years, only the military is currently
permitted to use it. The absence of
federal regulation allowing commercial
BLOS operations hinders the full value
and benefits that UAS has to offer.
As you will read in the regulatory
update article later in this issue,
regulations that provide guidance
and rules for operating unmanned
systems are necessary for the
industry’s advancement. For instance,
earlier this year the Federal Aviation
Administration issued a proposed
rule for UAS operations over people,
and the UAS community is eagerly
anticipating the agency to offer an
additional rule requiring UAS to be
equipped with Remote Identification.
Remote ID is a crucial next step to
gain the confidence of federal defense
and security agencies, manned
aviation users and the public to further
integrate UAS into the airspace.
By identifying themselves through
remote ID, UAS operators would likely
gain authority to fly over people and
eventually perform BLOS operations
such as inspection of utility rights of
way, widespread search and rescue
missions, and package delivery.
A clear, national regulatory
framework and the support of the
federal government is also required to
drive the deployment of driverless cars
and trucks. A recent survey of industry
professionals and government
policymakers involved with automated
vehicles (AVs) conducted by AUVSI and
Perkins Coie found that regulations
enhance safety and dispel consumer
2 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
concerns, thereby facilitating the
integration of AVs on our roads and
highways.
Furthermore, changes to existing
rules are sometimes needed to enable
technological advancements. At the
Automated Vehicles Symposium
that AUVSI hosted with the
Transportation Research Board in July,
federal officials affirmed they are
committed to protecting the freedom
of all Americans to make mobility
choices that best serve them. The
U.S. Department of Transportation
is following through on that policy
by offering a proposal to remove
Brian Wynne some current regulatory barriers to
President And CEO, encourage the development of AV
AUVSI technology.
Regulations are also necessary for
unmanned maritime systems (UMS),
which must meet the International
Regulations for Preventing Collisions
at Sea (COLREGs). Conversely, the
Coast Guard is relying on industry’s
expertise to determine what
regulations apply or need updating
A streamlined to allow for the safe and efficient
regulatory integration of UMS into the nation’s
navigable waterways. While COLREGs
environment remain a major piece of the puzzle,
is integral to the Coast Guard wants stakeholder
input on the infrastructure, manning,
allow for the and autonomy policies that require
safe integration modification before maritime systems
of unmanned can undertake basic unmanned
operations.
systems into Innovation and imagination
our nation’s continue to introduce a wide array of
applications for unmanned systems.
transportation However, regulatory barriers can limit
network. ... this progress. A streamlined regulatory
environment is integral to allow for the
safe integration of unmanned systems
into our nation’s transportation
network and to promote their
acceptance and adoption by
businesses and consumers for even
more transformative uses.
Learn from industry thought leaders with AUVSI’s Webinar Series without
ever leaving your office. Each month experts share their insights and answer
your questions about the unmanned community’s most pressing issues.

Webinars are FREE for AUVSI members and $49 for non-members.
Learn more about becoming an AUVSI member at auvsi.org/why-join-auvsi

Sign up for an AUVSI webinar today! auvsi.org Connect with us:

Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International

SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 3
CONTENT

MARITIME
28 ROBOTICS
Key to maintaining U.S. advantage
in undersea realm
18 TOP UPDATE
TOP program draws increased enterprise
interest, takes top ASAE award

REGULATORY

36
SMORGASBORD
FAA developing a menu of new rules to oversee
booming unmanned aviation sector

32 MANAGING
AUTONOMY
Regulators seek to promote the AV
industry, boost safety, protect spectrum

DEPARTMENTS
8 Industry Trends
• BAE tests autonomous boat
12 Company Highlight
Organic growth, good tech helps
26 Viewfinder
Seattle, Washington
• Optimus Ride launches in NY SkySkopes vault to top tier of DSPs

10 Essential Components
• Shuttle tested at Texas airport
22 Technology Gap
Robotic Skies makes sure growing
40 Chapter News
Updates from Saguaro, Hampton
• Team tests robotic charging station drone fleets can stay in the air Roads, Ridge and Valley, Great
Plains and San Diego Lindbergh
 TECHNOLOGY
UPDATE
On the road or in the air, unmanned
systems show value with package
deliveries

24

14 Q&A
Exclusive Q&A with Lt. Gen Todd Semonite,
head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

42 Far Out
MIT researchers help driverless cars,
robots spot objects amid clutter

45 Social Update
Top stories on AUVSI’s social media
pages
 2700 S. Quincy St. | Suite 400 | Arlington, VA 22206 USA
P: +1 703 845 9671 F: +1 703 845 9679
Email: info@auvsi.org

www.auvsi.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AUVSI STAFF

Officers Executive Team
Mark Gordon Brian Wynne, President and CEO, bwynne@auvsi.org
Chairman of the Board Chris Puig, Special Assistant to the President & CEO, Board Liaison, cpuig@auvsi.org
Stratom Inc. Heather Lee Landers, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, hlee@auvsi.org

Suzy Young Member Services and Chapters

Executive Vice Chairman Michael Wilbur, Director, Member Services, mwilbur@auvsi.org
University of Alabama, Huntsville Melissa Bowhay, Associate Director, Membership, mbowhay@auvsi.org
William Irby Amanda Bernhardt, Chapter Relations Manager, abernhardt@auvsi.org
Treasurer Lucy Haase, Data Integrity Specialist, lhaase@auvsi.org
L3 Technologies Emma Ferguson, Member Services Associate, eferguson@auvsi.org

Dallas Brooks Advocacy and Public Affairs

Immediate Past Chairman Tom McMahon, Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Public Relations, tmcmahon@auvsi.org
Miss. State/ASSURE UAS Center of
Drew Colliate, Director, Government Relations, dcolliate@auvsi.org
Excellence
David Klein, Research Analyst, dklein@auvsi.org
Directors Michael Smitsky, Manager, Advocacy and Government Relations, msmitsky@auvsi.org

2017 – 2020 Regulatory and Safety Affairs

David Agnew, Dataspeed Inc. Tracy Lamb, Vice President, Regulatory and Safety Affairs, Chief Pilot, tlamb@auvsi.org
Nevin Carr, Leidos Jenny Rancourt, Certification Manager, jrancourt@auvsi.org
Brian Chappel, Northrop Grumman Corp.
Publications and Content
Dyan Gibbens, Trumbull Unmanned
Brett Davis, Vice President, Publications & Content, Editor, bdavis@auvsi.org
Brendan Schulman, DJI
Brian Sprowl, Staff Writer, bsprowl@auvsi.org
Robert Sturgell, Collins Aerospace

2018 – 2021
Meetings and Conventions
Staci Butler, Vice President, Meetings and Conventions, sbutler@auvsi.org
Ben Gielow, Amazon
Karissa Bingham, Senior Meetings Manager, kbingham@auvsi.org
Marke Gibson
Lindsay Voss, Director, Education, lvoss@auvsi.org
Robert Hess, Unmanned Perspective LLC
Jason Blachek, Registration and Housing Manager, jblachek@auvsi.org
Houston Mills, UPS
Nicole Mattar Meetings Specialist, nmattar@auvsi.org
Susan Roberts, Panasonic Aviation Corp.

2019-2022 Business Development

Mike Greeson, Director, Business Development and Strategy, mgreeson@auvsi.org
Sean Bielat
Wes Morrison, Senior Business Strategist, wmorrison@auvsi.org
John Coffey, Cherokee Nation Technologies
Eric Hallberg, Business Strategist, ehallberg@auvsi.org
Suzanne Murtha, AECOM
Alex Mann, Business Operations Manager, amann@auvsi.org
Steven Nordlund, The Boeing Company
Thomas Reynolds, Hydroid Kongsberg
Operations
Jim Thomsen, Seaborne Defense
Bob Thomson, Senior Vice President, Operations, bthomson@auvsi.org
Karen Blonder, Director of Information Technology, kblonder@auvsi.org
Kyle Culpepper, Senior IT Analyst, kculpepper@auvsi.org
Mo Ahmed, IT Support Specialist, mahmed@auvsi.org
Librada “Rosie” Brown, Staff Accountant, rbrown@auvsi.org
Unmanned Systems is published eight times a year as the official publication of the Association Maria Ross, Staff Accountant, mross@auvsi.org
for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International 2019 by AUVSI, 2700 South Quincy Street, Suite 400,
Arlington, VA 22206 USA.

Contents of the articles are the sole opinions of the authors and do not necessarily express the
Marketing & Partnerships
policies or opinion of the publisher, editor, AUVSI, or any entity of the U.S. government. Materials may Stephanie Robert, Director, Marketing, srobert@auvsi.org
not be reproduced without written permission. Authors are responsible for assuring that the articles
are properly released for classification and proprietary information. All advertising will be subject to
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Unmanned Systems is provided with AUVSI membership. Sabine Hannoush, Graphic Designer, shannoush@auvsi.org

RoboNation Staff
Daryl Davidson, Executive Director, davidson@robonation.org
Norma Floriza, Director of Operations, floriza@robonation.org
Janelle Curtis, Programs & Development Director, curtis@robonation.org
Hitesh Patel, Robotic Programs Director, patel@robonation.org
Lindsey Groark, STEM Programs Director, lgorark@robonation.org
Cheri Koch, Events Senior Manager, koch@robonation.org
Contributing Authors Julianna Smith, Communications & Outreach Coordinator, smith@robonation.org
Lydia Bae, Office Manager, bae@robonation.org
Marc Selinger is a freelance writer based in the Washington, D.C.,
area. He can be reached at marc2255@yahoo.com. David Young, Product & Training Coordinator, dyoung@robonation.org
Yi Walls, Staff Accountant, ywalls@robonation.org
Cheryl Hedeen, Community Engagement & Training Coordinator, chdeen@robonation.org
Laverne Imori, Customer Service Coordinator, limori@robonation.org
6 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
 FEATURED
EVENT
AUVSI HILL
DAY & SCIENCE
AND TECH FAIR
2019

ASSOCIATION
EVENTS September
25, 2019
Rayburn House
Office Building
Banquet Rooms
2044 and 2045
Washington, D.C.
Global Security Exchange 2019 World Safety Summit
(GSX) on Autonomous Technology
Sept McCormick Place Levi’s Stadium
Oct
8 - 12 Chicago Santa Clara, California
2

2019 New York UAS 3RD Annual Unmanned

Symposium Systems Symposium:
The Power of Partnership
Sept Turning Stone Resort Casino
Verona, New York Oct Inn @ Virginia Tech
16 - 18
15 - 16 Blacksburg, Virginia

The International Construction Want to see more events? Index of Advertisers

& Utility Equipment Exposition
Kentucky Exposition Center
Oct
1-3 Louisville, Kentucky
Scan this code to see the
complete list of upcoming
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Click Bond...........................................30
HiTEC ..................................................31
Trimble ...............................Inside cover
The Power of Partnership................35
Volz .....................................................38

SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 7

INDUSTRY TRENDS

BAE Systems’ RIB-based autonomous boat. Photo: BAE Systems

BAE Systems tests ‘first of its kind’
autonomous boat
BAE Systems has successfully tested a “first of its kind”
autonomous boat it says will give navies the ability to “go beyond the
limits of human endurance with unmanned vessels that can travel
further, for longer and to more inhospitable environments.”
Known as the autonomous Pacific 950 Rigid
Inflatable Boat (RIB) demonstrator, the boat
has been used to develop and prove a variety of
technologies that could potentially make naval
missions faster, easier and safer, which,
according to BAE Systems, would take
the relationship between human and
machine to “new territories.”
The P950 was developed in
collaboration with industry experts
from L3Harris and MSI Defence
Systems. Equipped with automated
navigational decision-making technologies, the
vessel frees operators to focus on mission critical
information from a distance.
BAE Systems notes that the technology has
been designed to be retrofitted to existing RIBs—
such as its Pacific 24—to enhance the capabilities
of existing warships.

The Brookly Navy Yard is home to a new self-

driving vehicle program. Photo: Optimus Ride

Optimus Ride launches

New York state’s first AV
program
New York state’s first self-driving vehicle
program officially launched Aug. 7 at the
Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The program features autonomous
vehicles from Optimus Ride, as six of the
company’s autonomous vehicles will be used
to transport passengers between the NYC
Ferry stop at Dock 72 and the Brooklyn Navy
Yard’s Cumberland Gate at Flushing Avenue.
According to Optimus Ride, its vehicles will
transport an expected 500 passengers per
day and more than 16,000 passengers per
month.
“In addition, our system will provide
access to and experience with autonomy
for thousands of people, helping to increase
acceptance and confidence of this new
technology, which helps move the overall
industry forward,” says Dr. Ryan Chin, CEO
and cofounder of the company.
The vehicles will initially have a safety
driver and software operator on board.
On weekdays, the system will run on a
continuous loop from 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
between the dock and the Cumberland Gate.
The system will run during the same time
period on the weekends, between the dock
and Building 77.
8 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
 A Skyfront Perimeter drone flies in Alaska as part of the first FAA-backed
BVLOS flight. Photo: ACUASI
UA-Fairbanks team completes first
FAA approved BVLOS mission in U.S.
A University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF)-led team recently completed
the first FAA-approved true beyond visual line of sight domestic flight
of a UAS in the United States under the small UAS rule.
A Skyfront Perimeter long range hybrid-electric
UAS flew nearly four miles as it inspected a
portion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Operators
flew the UAS from the university’s Alaska Center
for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration
(ACUASI).
Instead of using human observers, the UAF
team used onboard and ground-based detection
systems during the flight to detect and avoid
other aircraft in the airspace. One of the systems
used was Iris Automation’s Casia, an onboard
collision avoidance technology. The team also
used a five-nautical-mile system made up of eight
ground-based Echodyne radars that provided
aviation radar coverage along the flight path.
“These first flights demonstrated that
new technology can provide a route toward
safe beyond-visual-line-of-sight operation of
unmanned aircraft in Alaska,” says Cathy Cahill,
director of ACUASI, part of the UAS Geophysical
Institute.
The flights were conducted under the UAS
Integration Pilot Program.

DroneResponders’ DroneResponders’ data included 82 percent of public safety agencies

research gives insight
into public safety
drone programs
DroneResponders, a nonprofit
program that supports public safety
UAS, has unveiled new research, the
2019 Mid-Year Public Safety UAS
Report, which offers insight into how
new public safety UAS programs are
developing, and takes a look at the
challenges that first responders who
are using this technology are facing.
survey responses from 288 public
safety professionals, along with expert
insight from DroneResponders analysts
who work with various stakeholders
within the public safety UAS sector on
a regular basis.
DroneResponders found that three
of four public safety agencies claim
they either are already operating
UAS or working on implementing a
UAS program, and that more than 80
percent of public safety UAS operators
have either obtained, or are pursuing,
their FAA Part 107 certification.
Additionally, the report found that
with a UAS program are operating
multi-rotor systems, while 11 percent
are using fixed or delta-wing UAS. The
report also says that more than 35
percent of public safety UAS programs
are using the FAA’s LAANC system for
airspace requests.
“The data represents a clear
snapshot illustrating how public safety
agencies are adopting drones,” says
Gregory Crustinger, a DroneResponders
analyst and principal at Scholar Farms
in Berkeley, California.

Wing will soon use drones to deliver

packages in Australia in mere minutes.
Photo: Wing
Wing launches UAS
delivery service
in Queensland,
Australia
Wing, a subsidiary of Google’s parent
corporation Alphabet, has announced
it will soon begin using UAS to deliver
various items such as fresh bread,
hot coffee and food items directly to
homes in Queensland, Australia, in just
minutes.
The service will start in Logan,
one of Australia’s fastest growing
communities and home to the eighth
largest population in Australia. Wing
attributes several factors to what
made Logan attractive for this service.
“One of the things we’ve learned from
our first several thousand deliveries
in Australia is that families with young
children seem to particularly enjoy our
service,” the company says. “They tell
us the convenience and ease of air
delivery saves them having to bundle
the kids up in the car to drive to the
shops.”
Wing notes that Logan has a
“booming” population of young families,
so it is “excited to see if they find
drone delivery as beneficial as other
Australian parents.”
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 9
ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS

EasyMile driverless shuttle

being tested at Texas airport
An EasyMile EZ10 driverless shuttle
is being tested at Austin-Bergstrom
International Airport (AUS) in Austin, Texas,
as part of a new pilot program.
The shuttle will take passengers from
the terminal to the front of the ground
transportation pick-up area, where taxis
and ride services pick up passengers.
AUS notes that other route options
could be explored in further testing. The
shuttle can seat six people, and there
is also room for standing passengers.
The shuttle is equipped with a built-
in automated electric access ramp for
wheelchair accessibility.
The shuttle operates autonomously, but an
AUS attendant is on board for safety purposes,
and to help travelers.
EasyMile’s EZ10 shuttle is being tested at Austin’s airport. Photo: Austin-
Bergstrom International Airport

VW’s Electrify America has teamed with Stable Auto to deploy robotic charging platforms for AVs at a demo site in San Francisco.
Image: Electrify America

Electrify America, Stable Auto
team to deploy robotic charging
platforms for AVs
Electrify America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen
Group of America, has announced it will work with Stable
Auto, a San Francisco-based electric vehicle fleet charging
company, to deploy robotic charging platforms for self-
driving vehicles in a pilot demonstration site in San Francisco.
The platform will seek to charge autonomous EVs without
human intervention using a robotic platform attached to
a 150-kilowatt DC fast charger. Expected to open in early
2020, the charging location will be Stable’s first commercial
autonomous charging site.
“Autonomous vehicles will play an important role in
the future of driving, particularly with fleets, and tailored
charging options for self-driving EVs will be critical to
develop that effort,” says Wayne Killen, Electrify’s director of
infrastructure planning and business development.

10 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019

 The Badger robot at work, using 5G technology. Photo: Badger
Technologies AT&T, Badger Technologies
team on autonomous retail
robots
Badger Technologies is working with AT&T to
enable autonomous robots with 5G wireless
networking capabilities to accelerate retail
automation.
According to Badger Technologies, its robots
give retailers the ability to identify out-of-
stock, mispriced or misplaced inventory, as
well as store hazards, which ultimately helps
improve operational efficiencies and customer
experiences.
The goal is to showcase how 5G using
millimeter wave spectrum and edge computing
could provide Badger Technologies and retailers
with the lower latency and high throughput
required to process and share large amounts of
data, while simultaneously running with other in-
store network applications.

DJI introduces first-person viewing
transmission system for drone
racing
DJI has introduced its DJI Digital First Person Viewing
(FPV) Transmission System, which it describes as an
“advanced digital ecosystem” that includes FPV goggles, an
FPV Air Unit Transmission Module, an FPV remote controller
and an FPV camera.
According to DJI, this technology is the “next evolutionary
step” forward in drone racing technology, as it opens a world
of creative possibilities for pilots by offering “smooth, clear
HD video, ultra-low end-to-end latency and long-range
transmission with strong anti-interference technology
packaged into a simplified setup.”

Sea Machine Robotics,
Marad showcase
oil-spill response tech
Sea Machines Robotics and the
U.S. Department of Transportation’s
Maritime Administration (MARAD) have
entered into a cooperative agreement
to showcase how Sea Machines’
autonomous technology can be used
to increase the safety, response time
and productivity of marine oil-spill
response operations.
On-water exercises will be
conducted once Sea Machines
equips a Marine Spill Response Corp.
(MSRC)-owned MARCO skimming
vessel — manufactured by Kvichak
Marine Industries — with its SM300
autonomous-command system. Sea
Machines will train MSRC personnel on
how to operate the system.
Sea Machines and MSRC performed
simulated oil-spill recovery exercises
in the harbor of Portland, Maine on
Aug. 21, before an audience made up
of government, naval, international,
environmental and industry partners.

SenseFly combining eBee X UAS
with Agisoft software
SenseFly has announced a limited-time offer that
combines the company’s senseFly eBee X UAS and its suite
of cameras with the intelligent photogrammetry software
from Agisoft Metashape.
During the time of the offer, which lasts until Sept. 30,
2019, customers who purchase an eBee X with the senseFly
S.O.D.A. 3D, senseFly Aeria X or MicaSense RedEdge-MX
sensor will not only get the UAS for $1,000 off, but will also
receive a six-month Agisoft Metashape Professional license.
SenseFly says the eBee X equipped with the intelligent
photogrammetry software will provide users with a “fully
integrated and highly precise suite of cameras as well as
powerful software that enables the generation of high-
quality point clouds, orthomosaics and digital elevation
models — all while reducing operation time and costs for end
users.”

SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 11

COMPANY HIGHLIGHT

ORGANIC GROWTH, GOOD TECH HELPS SKYSKOPES VAULT

TO TOP TIER OF DRONE SERVICE PROVIDERS By Brett Davis
SkySkopes, a UAS operator based in Grand
Forks, North Dakota, was recently named among
the top five drone services providers in the world
by Frost & Sullivan, a growth strategy consulting
and research firm.
Frost & Sullivan evaluated the 22 top drone
service providers and found that only five fell
into the “sweet spot” of growth performance and
the ability to innovate, SkySkopes being among
them. The firm highlighted various attributes
of the five-year-old company, including its
organic revenue growth, its use of advanced
lidar sensors and innovative techniques, among
others.
“According to our research and analysis,
SkySkopes has distinguished itself as a top
competitor in the global DSP market and is
likely to maintain this status for years to come,”
said Michael Blades, vice president at Frost &
Sullivan.
“I have the utmost respect for our peer
companies, but to me this ranking also indicates
that UAS, while still fledgling and uncertain, is
an industry where you can take an organic and
fiscally conservative approach,” says Matt
Dunlevy, president and CEO of SkySkopes,
which he notes had “significantly smaller”
venture capital investments than the other four
companies. Pulling string
SkySkopes focuses primarily on the oil and A SkySkopes drone
gas and utilities markets and Dunlevy says one carrying a RIEGL lira However, Dunlevy says the one attribute that
thing that sets it apart is its use of high-quality system prepares perhaps most sets the company apart is “we’re
lidar sensors. to fly over an oil a global leader in using drones for the actual
“We may have the most of the most advanced field. All photos: construction of transmission and distribution
lidar detectors,” Dunlevy says, mentioning the SkySkopes lines. Line stringing is a concept that we proved
RIEGL full Ranger series. out on transmission lines ... before anyone
“The full Ranger lidar series, I adamantly else in the United States. We’ve since fine-
believe, is the top UAS-based lidar system out tuned that concept to a point where we have a
there,” he says. “I’m pretty certain that we have significant lead with it as a product from a DSP’s
as many of them as anyone, and applying as standpoint.”
many of them as anyone, particularly out in the SkySkopes’ line construction process
Bakken oil fields and in other oil fields. I’d say involves using a drone to pull a lightweight
the lidar systems are really one of the major cable connected to a pulley system that then
traits that differentiate us and that we are able connects to heavier lines or the power cable
to use to make inroads into the energy sector. itself.
For example, with utilities, one can use the same “One can have strung the final product of the
lidar sensors from the oil fields to generate point transmission line or the distribution line without
clouds that give end users great awareness of having to put a helicopter in the air or without
their assets and vegetation encroaching on having to use traditional climbing or other trek
them.” methods. It is one of the most obvious ways
SkySkopes was also singled out by Frost & in which unmanned aircraft systems improve
Sullivan for its optical gas imaging system that safety factors and ultimately also save lives.”
can detect 20 different hydrocarbon gases, SkySkopes was founded in 2014, and with an
useful for detecting “fugitive emissions” in both early grant was able to buy an industrial-grade
the oil and gas and utilities sectors. UAS and then became the first company in North
12 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
 SkySkopes focuses
primarily on the oil
and gas and utilities
markets and says
one thing that sets
it apart is its use
of high-quality lidar
sensors.

Dakota to obtain a Section 333 exemption which that we wanted to be very conservative in our financial
allowed them to fly commercially, “but nobody really approach to the business. And, through that, I think
knew at the time how to use these SUAS industrially we’ve really proven we’re an extremely effective,
in North Dakota.” operationally safe, and operationally efficient service
SkySkopes scouted for what jobs it could, and one provider.”
of them turned out to be flying at the groundbreaking Going forward, the company wants to expand its
of the Grand Sky complex, which Dunlevy says was service offerings and the types of flights it can do
“one of the first commercial SUAS missions on a U.S. — Dunlevy says SkySkopes is “absolutely ravenous
military installation.” to get to beyond visual line of sight” and he supports
The company went on to be the first to fly under the push from AUVSI and the Federal Aviation
Part 107 in the state and to get its waiver to fly at Administration to get there.
night, and in the next couple of years went through “We stand shoulder to shoulder with AUVSI in the
its “industrializing days,” where it moved from “onesy- advocacy of the new technologies and in the advocacy
twosy” jobs to steady emergency response work and of new regulatory frameworks.”
beyond line of sight missions.
“A lot of this stems from the world-class UAS talent
at the University of North Dakota,” where the company
gets many of its pilots, he says.
In the few years since its founding, SkySkopes
has set up offices in the major cities in North Dakota
and also in Minneapolis, Fort Worth and Denver and
We stand shoulder to shoulder with
will soon establish footprints on both coasts and in
major metropolitan areas. It has gone from four initial
AUVSI in the advocacy of the new
employees to a few dozen and their willingness to technologies and in the advocacy
travel means “our service footprint is one of the most
wide-ranging in the industry,” Dunlevy says. of the new regulatory framework.
“We’re able to fly in any of the continental United
States due to the geographical spacing of our
corporate offices, and that we did this in an organic
fashion I think is remarkable.” he says. “We didn’t know
exactly how this was going to shake out, but we knew
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 13
Q&A
With Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite
Q: What do you see as the main benefits
behind expanding unmanned systems use by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)?
A: The mission of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
is to solve the nation’s toughest engineering
problems. To do this, we have to maintain
technical relevance in our many disciplines and
unmanned systems are a growing segment
of the engineering ecosystem. The principle
benefit for USACE is to maintain our position
as a world-class engineering organization. This
includes the significant potential for time and
money savings as well as intangibles such as
increasing safety for our personnel.
UAS get the most attention in the news these
days, but USACE is involved in a full spectrum
of activities using unmanned and remote
systems. Some examples are our unmanned
surface vessels including the Wave Adaptive
Modular Vessel (WAM-V), the Multifunctional
Assessment Reconnaissance Vessel (MARV),
and the Mini Robotic Submersible Dredge
(MRSD).
The WAM-V and the MARV both provide
excellent capabilities for port assessments and
other missions to support navigation efforts.
The WAM-V carries sonar for subsurface
maritime assessments and also has terrestrial
lidar equipment on deck. This dual capability
gives engineers and operations personnel a
complete picture with one data collection. The
MARV is designed to assess pile-supported
marine structures in a fraction of the time of
traditional methods and without exposing divers
to the hazardous conditions they pose.
The MRSD is a product of our own Engineering
Research and Development Center’s (ERDC)
effort. Even at 40 feet and 25,000 pounds, it
is truly a miniaturization of traditional dredging
machinery. This system is transportable
via airlift and can be deployed worldwide to
support immediate dredging needs remotely.
The benefit is twofold: enabling rapid port or
channel clearing and removing personnel from
14 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite assumed his position as Chief of Engineers and
Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on
May 19, 2016.As the USACE commanding general, he is responsible
for more than 32,000 civilian employees and 700 military personnel
who provide project management, construction support and science
and engineering expertise in more than 110 countries.
potentially harmful environments or dangerous
munitions that might be at the dredge site.
Q: How do you intend to implement the
growth of unmanned systems use by USACE?
What guidance have you given the field
commanders?
A: USACE has been growing unmanned
systems use for years. This work was done
locally at the district offices. During our
Executive Governance Meeting in the Summer
of 2018, at the recommendation of our senior
staff officers, I directed the establishment of
our Headquarters Aviation and Remote Systems
Office. This office, located in our Directorate of
Logistics, works closely with the G3 (operations)
and the G6 (chief information officer). One of
the key activities of the HQ program is to ensure
USACE implements appropriate standards,
training, and oversight of unmanned systems as
well as monitors cyber security and other risks
related to technology integration. Establishing
our HQ Aviation and Remote Systems Office
was a new beginning for growth of unmanned
technology within USACE.
My goal is to ensure the enabling technologies
are available to our field operating activities,
while, as much as possible, headquarters
manages the risks and administrative
processes. If we make it useful, the field
commanders will take care of the growth.
Q: Do personnel safety factors play a role in
this cost/benefit analysis?
A: Absolutely! Personnel safety is a
cornerstone of our operational mindset and one
of our highest priorities. USACE has made a lot
of progress implementing safety management
systems across our operations. To be able to
remove a USACE employee or support contractor
from a dangerous area and to use a drone or
other remote system in their place provides an
immeasurable value. Safety is a top intangible
 Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite (left) assesses the features of the MRSD micro-dredge, which provides a rapid deployed, remotely
operated dredging capability critical to navigation and port operations during emergency operations. Photo: USACE
benefit we see with the use of remote systems, along with
higher fidelity of collected information, and collection of data
products like full motion video as a byproduct of unmanned
operations.
Just this year in Nebraska, our Omaha district used their
newly acquired UAS to collect data on several levee systems
along the Missouri River that were overtopped during flooding.
Without the UAS, we might have had people venturing into
more dangerous situations to gather information, or we may
have had less information in the operations center to help
us make critical decisions. The same thing happened in the
Vicksburg District on the Yazoo River a few weeks before
that. We can’t quantify the measure of safety our people
were afforded, but we have no doubt it was there.
Q: What role do cost considerations play, and do you think
the benefits outweigh the costs?
A: We are always focused on providing value to the
nation. We owe it to the customers we support and to the
taxpayers. The commanders and directors in USACE make
careful, informed decisions to ensure best value for every
dollar USACE spends. The value of using unmanned systems
is unmistakable. When the use of drones or other remote
systems is appropriate, we work to realize up to 90 percent
reduction in cost over traditional methods, and up to 85
percent time savings for data collection. The intangibles
like safety, increased data resolution, and an enduring data
record are just icing on the cake.
The key is appropriate employment of the systems. Our
commanders conduct careful cost benefit analysis prior to
acquisition of these systems. Once fielded, our teams are
trained to conduct a thorough analysis of alternatives and
to bring the best tool to bear for each job. When the correct
tool is an unmanned system, the benefits clearly outweigh
the costs.
Q: Were drones or other types of systems used to help aid
recovery in Puerto Rico, and what roles did they play?
A: While they were used in isolated efforts, remote
systems did not play a major role for USACE in the recovery
efforts in Puerto Rico. This is one of the issues that
highlighted our need to provide a program similar to those
found in other large federal organizations. Our operations
officer, Col. Dave Hibner, who has been a vocal advocate for
unmanned systems for years, has worked with our aviation
program manager to ensure integration into our emergency
support function mission.
The first area to see benefit has been our Blue Roof,
or temporary roofing mission. The Blue Roof program
manager incorporated UAS usage in the Hurricane Michael
response with promising results. He has continued to lead
UAS integration into our emergency support functions
and has a plan for the next contingency to expand UAS
roofing inspection missions as well as to incorporate other
technologies that are tangential to UAS use.
If you run the numbers on Blue Roof in Puerto Rico where
we emplaced over 59,000 missions, a savings of only 30
minutes per mission would have reduced the overall workload
by more than 14 man-years of effort! So, while we didn’t have
UAS to bring to the Puerto Rico mission, we learned from it
and are working to be ready for future ESF missions.
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 15
Q: Are there potential benefits to incorporating monthly. We were behind industry but are quickly closing the
unmanned systems in emergency recovery plans? What gap and expect to be on par within one to two years.
are they? For UAS, the FAA and Department of Defense regulations
have settled down with the implementation of the FAA
A: The potential benefits for emergency support function Part 107 and the new AR 95-1 Flight Regulations. Ground,
missions are the same as they are for normal operations. maritime and aerial unmanned systems all face cyber
Efficiency, accuracy, and safety are the top three that come security threats that we are poised to control with the help
to mind. However, USACE operators have to be proficient and of HQDA [headquarters, Department of the Army] and OSD
have up-to-date equipment to maximize their emergency [Office of the Secretary of Defense]. A significant portion
response capability. of the Headquarters Program efforts during this year have
Our aviation program manager is developing the been focused on ensuring a solid cyber security posture.
unmanned training standards to include the skillsets Industry users of unmanned systems are experiencing
needed for normal and emergency
operations. All our major mission,
civil works, military programs,
and emergency response —
while different — require the
same knowledge and skills. This
ensures all of our remote systems
operators can support whatever
mission comes their way. It also
ensures synchronization between
all our major programs. This
synchronization is a risk factor I
track to ensure military programs
and civil works operations
don’t deviate enough to require
separate programs and all the
inefficiency that would come with
them.

Q: What are the major

limitations to growth in the use
of unmanned systems within
USACE, and how do you plan to
overcome them?

A: A key factor for integration of

any new or emerging technology is to avoid the urge to a stabilization of operational standards
proceed too quickly. I have tasked our Headquarters as well. Thanks, not in small part, to the
Aviation Program to provide well-defined standards USACE employee efforts of organizations like AUVSI, which
Jonathan Marshall works to bring industry and regulators
and training to meet the mission needs in the field.
orients Lt. Gen.
The program teaches use of risk management in together several times a year to shape the
Semonite (left) to the
acquisition, mission planning, and execution. ERDC MARV project
future of unmanned systems.
At a higher level, there are regulatory, safety, unmanned surface Our job, and we are ready to move out, is
and security limitations we can overcome through vessel. The MARV is to advance the state of the art together
deliberate establishment of an excellent program and designed to assess with our industry partners in multiple
clear communication of our mission and intentions to piling structures via engineering and scientific disciplines. I’d
our governing agencies. We are doing that now and remote sonar systems. say we are in a very good place on the use
The MARV ensures of unmanned systems. They sky really is
will continue to do it.
safety of personnel
Our headquarters program continues to work the limit from here.
on the structures as
regulatory and policy issues, and commanders in the well as inspection and
field continue to discover new ways to safely and repair crews facing Q: What about in comparison to other
effectively implement and leverage the ever-emerging underwater hazards. military operations? What can you learn
unmanned systems technology. Photo: USACE from them?

Q: Would you say USACE is ahead of, or behind, A: Well, the warfighting army is clearly
industry in the use of unmanned systems? a leader in using unmanned systems.
Every officer with combat experience has
A: The key step to getting USACE on track with benefited from the intelligence and kinetic
unmanned systems use was the establishment of capability of unmanned aerial systems like
our Headquarters Aviation and Remote Systems the Raven, Shadow, or Gray Eagle. What
Program. This program has removed 80-90 percent we have learned from that experience is
of the administrative burden from our field operations to expect great capability and work to find
and is assisting districts in establishing new programs new ways to employ it.
16 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
 UAS operations in the military have evolved from
merely putting a camera in the sky to providing
security over-watch, delivering equipment
or supplies in small quantities, disrupting IED
emplacement activities without direct troop
engagement, and many other operations
that weren’t even imagined by the early UAS
developers.
We need to do the same thing with unmanned
technology in engineering operations. An example
of this innovation is a needed turbine inspection
at one of our dams in the Portland District. The
facility manager was going to have to close the
penstock and drain the turbine chamber to allow
a person or UAS to get under the turbine and
inspect it. However, our remote system operator
there, Todd Manny, recommended a novel solution;
use of a tethered submersible system to swim in
under the turbine and inspect it using sonar rather
than a camera. This eliminated the need to drain
the chamber and reduced the risk of injury or loss
of the UAS that would have occurred if it fell into
the water.
We leverage the work of the Army’s Project
Management office for UAS to bring their best
products to our fleet where it makes sense. Our
aviation team is located near Redstone Arsenal
for proximity to the Army aviation
acquisition efforts there. One of our
aviation team members interfaces
with the PM UAS small range
reconnaissance (SRR) team on a
regular basis.
Q: How can the unmanned systems
industry help you accomplish your
missions?
A: Continue to innovate! Our
industry partners in every discipline
are using cutting-edge technologies
to execute their missions. These
advancements lead to better, longer
lasting solutions at reduced costs.
Keep it up!
Q: How do you plan to deal with
cybersecurity issues?
A: By the book! The Aviation and
Remote Systems program effort I directed
was initially recommended to me by our chief
information officer in 2018. We recognized the
cyber threat and are working to ensure we protect
our systems every day. Our remote systems cyber
security posture uses a nested approach that
begins with acquiring secure systems, ensures
a thorough mission assessment process, and
isolates remotely collected data until it is
scanned to ensure data integrity and security. We
will continue to incorporate protections to ensure
our civil works, military programs and emergency
response missions overcome any cyber threats.
Q: Where do you see the use of unmanned
aircraft and ROVs or other systems in USACE in
three to five years?
A: I expect the use of these systems will explode
in the coming years. I expected it when I was a
division commander in USACE, and I’m seeing it
happen during my tenure as the 54th U.S, Army
Chief of Engineers. We are already flying hundreds
of survey and mapping missions every year and I
expect that number to continue to increase.
USACE has initiatives to use UAS to improve
Blue Roof responsiveness, support flood fighting
operations across the country, map undersea
terrain (bathometry) for coastal management,
Jason Kirkpatrick, and the list goes on.
aviation and remote There is potential in every mission we
systems program execute. Be it use by our park rangers, public
manager, reviews affairs, facilities managers, security personnel,
a senseFly eBee X construction managers, or countless others with
fixed-wing drone with
the imagination to innovate. Some have direct,
Lt. Gen. Semonite
as Jeffrey Burbach, tangible benefits that can be attributed to cost
USACE director of savings, and all missions have intangible benefits
logistics, looks on. that range from increased personnel safety
Photo: Phil Tintner to being able to provide data that would have
previously remained unavailable.
There is no limitation to where we will be in three
to five years. The imagination of our people and
Our industry our mission requirements will guide this growth.
partners
Q: What advice would you give to the next
in every Chief of Engineers for the use of unmanned
discipline systems?
are using
A: Get out there and see what’s happening!
cutting-edge You have the unique honor to lead the finest U.S.
technologies Army Corps of Engineers that has ever existed.
to execute Embrace the growth of the amazing technologies
we possess and encourage the people in the field
their missions. to keep pushing the envelope!
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 17
TOP UPDATE

TOP PROGRAM DRAWS INCREASED ENTERPRISE

INTEREST, TAKES TOP ASAE AWARD
By Brett Davis

Industry interest
As indicated by ASAE, industry interest
in using TOP for UAS operations is growing
across a variety of sectors.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. of The
Woodlands, Texas, is evaluating the TOP
program and, if things go as expected,
plans to start deploying it in the next
month for the company’s internal pilot
fleet and pilots from external vendors.
“We have about 43 to 45 internal
pilots and we’re looking for a way to
quantitatively assess and grade their
skills as an operator,” says Wane Rodieck,
Anadarko’s aerial and visual analytics
manager. “We were looking for something
that went above and beyond Part 107. The
AUVSI TOP program was a great next step
for us.”
Anadarko plans to have all its pilots TOP
Level 2 certified by the end of the year,
Rodieck says, with some to advance to
Level 3 for more industry-specific training.
Anadarko uses its fleet of drones all over
the world, to monitor construction, detect
pipeline leaks, create orthomosaics for its
well sites and other uses. The company
works with four outside vendors but does
DARTdrones, a training company that was an early adopter of the TOP program, about 95 percent of its drone work in-
says enterprise users are becoming more attracted to drone pilot certification. house. All of the Anadarko pilots fly part-
Photo: High Class Studios
time, he says, using the UAS as a tool to
help them do their jobs.
AUVSI recently took home a Power of A (Association) Gold Award from ASAE, “Drones are allowing us to understand
the Center for Association Leadership, for its Trusted Operator Program (TOP), what we have in the field much more
now almost a year old. comprehensively than we were [able to]
TOP is a certification program aimed at creating a culture of safety, reliability, with our two-dimensional data,” Rodieck
professionalism and trust within the UAS community. says.
“We applaud AUVSI for creating and implementing such a collaborative Rodieck started the company’s drone
initiative that strengthens society,” says Sharon J. Swan, CEO of the American program and was its only pilot for a couple
Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and chair of the Power of of years. Now Anadarko has a fleet of 52
A Awards Judging Committee. “Their initiative exemplifies how no other sector UAS, made of up various models from DJI,
helps improve lives as comprehensively as the association community.” including Phantom 4s, Matrice 200s and
There are now more than 100,000 drone pilots certified by the Federal 600s, and Mavics.
Aviation Administration and that’s just since the regulations went into effect in Before coming to TOP, the company
2016 to allow commercial flight. required its pilots to be Part 107 certified
ASAE notes that although it was created to begin domestically, TOP has and then had its own induction training.
drawn interest from around the world, including Australia, Canada, Mexico, “However, there was nothing really
Rwanda, South Africa and the United Kingdom. In addition, three significant structured around the training and
enterprise users — a leading insurance company and two of the top 10 U.S. certification of those pilots and the
electric utilities — are in the process of adopting policies that would only allow company that we’re working with now, it’s
TOP-certified remote pilots to carry out their UAS operations. much more comprehensive than anything
18 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
we put together,” Rodieck says. “So,
we’re seeing a lot of value out of the
TOP certification and training process.”
The company expects its drone use
to expand in the future, as it is merging
with Occidental Petroleum Corp.,
effectively doubling the size of the
company.
“We do anticipate with the doubling
of the size of the company that we
would double our staff, we would
double our aircraft, so we are expecting
to grow,” Rodieck says.
Training is the bedrock
The National Transportation Safety
Board is also using TOP to help
backstop its training.
Bill English, the investigator-in-
charge in the Major Investigations
Division of the Office of Aviation
Safety, said in an email exchange with
Unmanned Systems that NTSB needs
its investigators to be trained on the
technology to conduct investigations
of UAS mishaps, and operational
training for flight operations officials to
conduct multimodal mission support.
“Training is the bedrock of any
aviation operation,” he says.
Having the TOP Protocol Certification
Manual “is a great guide to bounce our
procedures off of, to make sure we
have ‘covered all the bases,’” he says,
although it’s not the only source for
that.
The NTSB has worked with
DARTdrones’ Real World Flight Planning
and Execution as an “excellent ground
school,” which qualified the attendee
for TOP Level 1, English writes.
“All of our flight ops pilots are TOP
1 and a handful of investigators have
taken the Dart course,” he says, which
It’s going to
is “but one of many training courses
that we use.”
As for the critical importance of
training, English writes, “I often tell take some
people that a UAS program budget
should be roughly 25 percent flight time, but TOP is
equipment, 25 percent support
equipment/software, and 50 percent well positioned
training. Everybody focuses on the
gadgets. Wrong, wrong, wrong.” to be adopted
Enterprise interest as the industry
DARTdrones recently published a list
of six reasons why enterprise drone
standard.
operations are becoming interested in
TOP (DARTdrones is a Level 3 training
–DARTdrones
provider and early adopter of the
program).
• It’s a differentiator: There are
thousands of certified Part 107
pilots, but it can be difficult to identify
the ones who are truly qualified and
experienced.
• It provides a true industry standard —
more than 200 indusry leaders created An Anadarko optical gas imaging technician
the consensus standards in the TOP flies the Optical Gas Imaging drone,
Protocol Certification Manual. conducting a wellsite emissions inspection.
• It fills in “missing pieces” of Part 107, Photo: Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
which DARTdrones covers in 14 online,
scenario-based microcourses covering
things like weather assessement,
equipment care and maintenance and
aviation communications.
• It provides a vetted flight assessment.
• TOP Level 3 includes a functional area
breakout aimed at specific industries.
• It improves internal pilot team “buy-
in.”
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 19
Advertisement
FAST-GROWING UXV MARKET ATTRACTS PRIVATE
EQUITY, SPURS GROWTH THROUGH ACQUISITIONS
The unmanned systems market is one of the
fastest growing investment priorities for the U.S.
Department of Defense; this supportive industry
backdrop has led to significant mergers and
acquisitions activity driven by both private equity
and strategic buyers.
Over the last 30 years, unmanned aircraft
systems original equipment manufacturers
have steadily advanced technologies from
aerostructures to flight control systems and
weaponization of aircraft for the DOD. As key UAS
platforms became mission-ready and operational
(such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper), the
demand for support personnel grew exponentially,
and the U.S. military turned to the private sector
for solutions.
What began as a small niche of DOD contracting
firms quickly evolved into a handful of large, full-
spectrum service providers built by nearly 10 years
of private equity-funded and strategic acquisitions.
Private equity
In the traditional private equity model, the
investment firm will seek to acquire profitable
businesses with high growth potential and
subsequently manage and grow the business
through a mix of organic and inorganic growth,
such as acquisitions. After establishing a platform
company investment, add-on deals promote
20 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
operational synergies, access to new customers
or program offices, vertical integration, and new
capabilities or services.
Throughout the 2010s a handful of private equity
firms captured the burgeoning opportunity of the
DOD’s UAS services and support requirements and
have grown their platforms into industry leaders.
At the macro level, the private equity community’s
growing interest in UAS support services stems
from the continuous, specialized human capital
needs of our military, and broadly speaking the
large, rapidly growing addressable market.
Diving into the UAS services market, the U.S.
military utilizes UAS for two primary mission
classes: combat support and ISR (intelligence,
surveillance, reconnaissance). Behind-the-scenes
personnel are required to support flight operations
— piloting, training, logistics support, systems
A ground control engineering and maintenance, and ISR data
station to control processing.
end-to-end flight
Many of these operations are performed within
of remotely
piloted aircraft.
the Continental United States (CONUS) or Outside
Photo: General of the Continental United States (OCONUS) with
Atomics aircraft programs being either contractor owned,
Aeronautical contractor operated (COCO), government owned,
Systems Inc. contractor operated (GOCO), and contractor
(GA-ASI). owned, government operated (COGO).
Contract awards for the DOD’s UAS services
vary in length and scale, though the high demand
and specialization often lead to long-term contract
awards, and consequently revenue visibility — a very
attractive attribute to private equity investors. Revenue
visibility allows businesses owners the opportunity for long-
term and detailed strategy adjustments to plan for higher
margin capture. In addition to the visibility advantage, a
service business model implies high free cash flow, or cash
flow from operations minus capital expenditures.
For UAS services, capital expenditures are minimal
as operations are human capital intensive, relying on
qualified personnel and training programs as opposed to
manufacturing facilities and production equipment.
Prior to private equity’s involvement in the UAS services
space, the emerging DOD demand from the 1990s to early
2000s sparked and injection of contractors into the market
fueled by aspirations of the same operating advantages
that would attract a private equity influx a few years later.
The surge of services businesses continued through to the
2010s and created a highly fragmented market of family-
owned or closely held businesses.
Examples
Two prime examples of private equity’s early roll-up
interest in the UAS services market are MAG Aerospace
and Aevex Aerospace. MAG was acquired by Clairvest Group
in 2013, and over a five-year ownership period, Clairvest
and MAG completed three add-on transactions. Add-on
initiatives centered on increasing capabilities and gaining
new contract exposure.
Clairvest’s first add-on for MAG was in 2015 with BOSH
Global Services, a provider of UAS/C4ISR support, training,
and systems engineering. MAG and Clairvest then followed
with two more add-ons in 2017, focusing on manned and
unmanned aerial ISR and imagery services.
In a five-year period, Clairvest grew MAG from a veteran-
owned small business to a tip-to-tail service provider for the
U.S. Air Force and special operations forces. Over the same
time period, other private equity firms were beginning to
implement similar strategies.
In 2014, KAL Capital founders Trevor Bohn and Ryan
Murphy advised on the sale of Merlin RAMCO to Trive Capital.
Merlin RAMCO — referred to as Aevex Aerospace today —
provided a highly technical team of aircraft operators, sensor
technicians, and engineers. Combined with the acquisition of
ISR Group, Trive Capital set the stage for becoming the next
big UAS services roll-up.
Trive continued growing the Merlin platform through two
more acquisitions, focused on technical services offerings:
CSG Solutions in 2017, and Special Operations Solutions
(SOS) in 2018. CSG provides mission-specific processing,
exploitation, and dissemination of UAS sensor data, and SOS
provides personnel specializing in geospatial intelligence
systems, UAS sensor operation and other intelligence
analysis.
The Trive and Clairvest platforms are key examples of the
private equity charge into the unmanned services markets.
In less than five years, both firms built full-spectrum services
giants, providing everything from piloting and logistics
support, to sensor pod maintenance and data exploitation
and dissemination. The platforms were built on a total of 10
acquisitions of family-held businesses.
As the deals continued, new private equity entrants have
entered the competition and valuations for the family-held
services businesses continue to climb higher into the seller-
friendly environment that business owners are witnessing
today.
The ISR industry is primarily driven by the unmanned
aircraft market, but there is a manned component as well,
and innovations in electronics, camera systems and data
connections have “dramatically changed” the capability set,
says KAL Capital’s Murphy.
“As the technology has changed, the application has grown
exponentially and the demand for those types of services,
by the armed forces in particular, has kind of gone off the
charts,” Murphy says.
Other active UAS/government services platforms include
private equity firm The Jordan Company and VT Group.
The firm recently announced the acquisition of another
add-on, National Technologies Associates — a provider
of maintenance and sustainment services for fixed-wing,
rotorcraft — and UAS. KAL Capital founders advised The
Jordan Co. on their original acquisition of VT Group back in
2012.
Emerging interests
It’s easy to point to the parade of UAS services deals for
private equity, but recent manned and unmanned aircraft
advancements have made hardware and subsystem
manufacturing a viable investment initiative and a few equity
groups have already made investments.
In the past, lengthy R&D and prototyping cycles, grueling
hardware and software certification requirements, and high
barriers to entry kept the bulk of the supply-chain captive to
a few blue-chip OEMs. Aircraft systems worldwide are now
moving toward modular, configurable system architectures
for components and subsystems. This has drastically opened
new supplier opportunities and consequently increased
participation from smaller, family-held manufacturers.
In the past year alone, we’ve witnessed an uptick of
private equity investment in UAS-focused component
manufacturing, including KKR’s acquisition of Hensoldt
France, a manufacturer of data link and Identification Friend
or Foe products; CapitalView’s acquisition of Broadcast
Microwave Services, a radio frequency/microwave
component manufacturer; and Acorn Growth’s acquisition
of Black Sage Technologies, a counter-UAS hardware and
software provider.
Looking ahead
Considering the continued services roll-up strategy and
new UAS manufacturing business interest, it’s anticipated
that private equity will continue to chase the fragmented
market space. On the product and manufacturing side,
new private equity platforms will emerge and the quest for
vertical integration and manufacturing synergies will fuel a
wave of add-on deals over the next few years.
“Today, private equity is the primary liquidity option for
owners looking to sell or recapitalize their companies,”
Murphy says. “That’s driven by new LPs [limited partners],
new allocations from institutional investors into private
equity. And so, they have a lot of dry powder to deploy into
businesses. I don’t think that’s going to change at all.”
For the services contractor side, add-ons are anticipated
to drive the majority of deal flow through the remainder of the
fragmented market space, providing an ideal opportunity for
family-held businesses to exit at premium valuations amidst
an increasingly competitive, consolidating environment.
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 21
TECHNOLOGY GAP

ROBOTIC SKIES MAKES SURE GROWING

DRONE FLEETS CAN STAY IN THE AIR
By Brett Davis

Companies need to maintain their fleets of drones, and

Robotic Skies connects them to a worldwide network of
repair centers. All photos: Robotic Skies

Robotic Skies, based in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, is based on the notion
that the growing fleet of unmanned
aircraft in the skies all have one thing
in common — they’re going to need
maintenance.
Brad Hayden, the company’s founder,
grew up in aviation, in what he calls a
“Part 145 repair station environment”
(Part 145 of the Federal Aviation
Administration’s Code of Federal
Regulations Title 14 governs aircraft
maintenance and inspection facilities).
“I started working on airplanes when
I was pretty young, and it was like my
high school job, if you will,” he says, and
continued in college.
He worked in marketing for various
high-tech companies for years and
eventually found himself in an office
overlooking the approach to San
Francisco International Airport.
“I spent four years running a global
program. I had teams all over the world,
so I was on calls all hours of the day and
night, and I was watching the planes
landing at SFO for all that time. And I
thought, oh my gosh, I want to get back
into aviation,” Hayden says.
He got back into the industry via a
startup avionics company, but also got
into the unmanned side of things by
joining the multirotor drone community
“back when it was still kind of DIY.
So, you’re building these things from
kits, you’re not even able to buy one
complete, pretty much.”
Hayden said he realized drones were
only going to become more complicated
and be able to take on more complex
missions, such as flying beyond line of
sight.
He realized “when that happened,
those aircraft were going to have to
be maintained and they were going to
have to be maintained in a central way
to best assure safety and reliability, so
we didn’t have an incident.”
He conducted a year’s worth of
market analysis and “determined there
was an opportunity there to leverage
these exact Part 145 repair stations
that I grew up in.”
In 2014, Hayden launched Robotic
Skies, a company that serves as a
broker network to those Part 145 repair
stations.
“The reason why I chose to go with
the Part 145 repair stations is exactly
why we do it in manned aviation,”

22 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019

Hayden says. “They have processes in place
that basically specify how aircraft are going to
be received, how they’re going to be repaired
and how they’re going to be returned to service.
And so, by implementing a Part 145 repair
network ... what we’re doing is bringing that
same reliability and those same processes into
the unmanned world.”
There are currently no regulatory
requirements for certified maintenance in the
unmanned aviation world, but Hayden says,” we
absolutely think it’s going to go that way.”

Worldwide network
Robotic Skies now has a network of more
than 170 repair stations across 40 countries
— the ones overseas aren’t covered under
Part 145 but have the local equivalent
certification. It works with companies to design
a maintenance regime for their drone fleets,
including maintenance intervals, then provides services for commercially focused regulatory
that to the maintenance centers, which are well compliance, ground support, training, MRO,
versed in all types of aircraft from business jets The company works parts distribtution, field upgrades and vehicle
on down. with customers to retrofit capabilities.
“So, the beauty to our manufacturer design a maintenance “The industry is starting to understand
customers and our operator customers is regime for their drone that this is, you know, how the FAA is going to
they don’t have to go out and implement a fleets, including
approach it,” Hayden says of drone maintenance.
formalized maintenance program and recruit maintenance intervals,
then provides that “So, as they get more clarity around that, they
a whole bunch of service centers to be able are absolutely going to realize that they’re going
to the maintenance
to maintain their aircraft in the field — we’ve to need maintenance at the level that we offer.”
centers.
already done that,” he says. When he first got into drones, and first-
“Our biggest value proposition is that we person-view control, Hayden said he realized
offer one global solution, but we offer it on a that drone technology could also make manned
local scale,” Hayden says. aviation safer.
Robotic Skies will even take care of “One of the things that really fascinated
pickup and delivery of aircraft that are too me was how a lot of the technology, including
big or expensive to ship. It works with larger, accelerometers and GPS and navigation controls
commercial unmanned systems, not smaller ... was actually a lot of the same technology we
consumer products made by companies like were putting into our manned aviation products.
DJI, which has its own maintenance program. And I recognized that, this was truly going to be a
The tiny company — currently five people, disruptor to the aviation industry. And you know,
but they’re hiring — works with a variety of aviation is not an easy industry to disrupt.”
customers, including Pulse Aerospace, uAvionx,
Black Swift Technologies, Iris Automation,
Alpha Unmanned Systems and others, and
recently drew the attention of aerospace Customers include Pulse Aerospace, uAvionx, Black Swift
industry heavyweight Boeing, which announced Technologies, Iris Automation, Alpha Unmanned Systems and others.
an investment in the company, although few
details were provided.
“With safety as a cornerstone, we are
shaping a robust operational ecosystem for
on-demand mobility that supports the future
of aircraft, air vehicles and autonomous
systems,” Brian Schettler, managing director
for Boeing HorizonX Ventures, said in a June
announcement.
Boeing, and its subsidiaries Jeppesen
and Aviall, had previously teamed with
Robotic Skies to support its core work for
delivering maintenance and repair for civil
and commercial UAS, a pairing announced in
the fall of 2018. Boeing and Robotic Skies
are jointly pursuing opportunities to provide

SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 23

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
ON THE ROAD OR IN THE AIR, UNMANNED SYSTEMS SHOW
VALUE WITH PACKAGE DELIVERIES By Brian Sprowl
Startup Kodiak Robotics has begun making driverless
deliveries, albeit with a safety driver behind the wheel.
Photo: Kodiak Robotics
Whether on highways or sidewalks or in the air, unmanned
systems are increasingly being used to deliver packages across
the United States and around the world.
Digital freight broker Loadsmart and autonomous truck
startup Starsky Robotics recently announced they were able
to automatically dispatch an autonomous truck to haul freight.
Loadsmart successfully priced, tendered and booked the
dispatchment, while Starsky’s self-driving technology was
used to pick up and deliver the shipment. There was no need
for human intervention during this process, thanks to the
integration of Loadsmart’s artificial intelligence-powered
pricing and load matching technology with Starsky’s API.
According to Loadsmart and Starsky, this initiative is part
of a “larger strategic partnership” that paves the way for the
future of trucking, which will consist of autonomous brokerages
dispatching freight to autonomous trucks without human
involvement.
“Today, for the first time ever, the advances that seem
obvious for the ride-sharing services are coming to trucking,”
says Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, CEO and founder of Starsky
Robotics.
“It’s not uncommon for a traditional trucking company to
have five full-time employees involved in dispatching each
truck for each load. By integrating e-brokers like Loadsmart, we
are eliminating all back office human intervention and making
24 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
the shipment process seamless, while focusing on ensuring
the safety of driverless trucks. With Starsky’s Hutch
API, which was also announced today, we will be able
to autonomously dispatch autonomous loads on a
regular basis.”
By combining its Automated Dispatch API with
Starsky’s Hutch API, Loadsmart was able to connect
its network of customers with Starsky’s fleet of regular
and self-driving trucks.
The partnership is mutually beneficial for
b o t h companies, as Starsky can
automatically dispatch
its trucks without
human intervention,
while Loadsmart can help
its clients move more with
less by expanding its ability
to automate the shipping
process from quoting,
booking to delivery.
“Autonomous vehicles
play an integral role in our
vision of delivering end-to-
end automated shipping and
logistics services,” says Ricardo
Salgado, CEO, Loadsmart.
Commercial deliveries
Meanwhile, just 16 months after forming, self-driving truck
startup Kodiak Robotics Inc. announced it has started making
its first commercial deliveries with a safety driver behind the
wheel. Kodiak has also announced its new facility in North
Texas, which will help the company support its growing testing
and freight operations.
“In just over a year, we’ve gone from founding Kodiak to putting
our trucks on the road and hauling freight for customers,” says
Don Burnette, CEO and cofounder of Kodiak Robotics. “Making
such rapid progress wouldn’t be possible without our strong,
experienced team, who’ve been working with autonomous
vehicles since the early days of the industry.”
With a goal of revolutionizing long-haul trucking, Kodiak says
it operates as a “true freight carrier,” as its self-driving trucks
operate on “middle mile” highway routes. Since launching in
April 2018, Kodiak has not only launched freight operations for
customers in Texas, but has also expanded its fleet of trucks.
Scout deliveries
In Southern California, Amazon’s Scout delivery robots hit
the ground in early August to deliver packages to customers.
To start, a small number of Scout robots will make deliveries
Monday through Friday during daylight hours.
Amazon says customers in the Irvine, California, area can
order things the way they normally do, and their Amazon
packages will be delivered either by one of Amazon’s carrier
partners or by an Amazon Scout. The same delivery options are

available via Scout including same-day, one-day and two-day
shipping for Prime members.
Initially, the robots will be accompanied by an Amazon Scout
Ambassador, as they autonomously follow their delivery route.
Over the past few months, Amazon Scout robots have been
making deliveries just outside of Amazon’s headquarters in
Washington state. Amazon says it has been delighted to see
the reaction of customers who receive deliveries from the
robots.
“One of our favorite parts of this journey so far has been
witnessing how excited customers are when they see the
delivery device for the first time and how they’ve welcomed
Scout into their neighborhood,” Amazon says. “In the span of
a week, our Ambassadors witnessed a child ask her dad for
a Scout for Christmas, and another customer ask if he could
hitch his two dachshunds to Scout and use it as a dog walker.”
Amazon says it is constantly thinking about how its Scout
robots will integrate into the neighborhood and delight
customers.
“It’s the reason we developed Scout from the ground-up
with safety and convenience in mind,” the company says.
“From the design of the robotic hardware to the development
of the back-end tech that operates the device.”
Medicine in the air
To help advance global medical drone deliveries, Pierce
Aerospace announced a partnership with a drone delivery
company based in Bengaluru, India called Redwing Labs.
The partnership will leverage the respective strengths
of each company, including Pierce Aerospace’s Remote
Identification expertise and technologies and Redwing Labs’
long-distance delivery UAS and operations.
“I am happy to see Redwing Labs and Pierce Aerospace
combining efforts to advance medical drone delivery around
the world,” says Aaron Pierce, CEO Pierce Aerospace. “Applying
Remote ID to these flights expands the scope of airborne
medical operations even further, helping patients obtain
greater and faster access to healthcare when it is needed
most.”
Amazon’s Scout delivery robots, having been tested
in Seattle, are now making deliveries in Southern
California. Photo: Amazon
Pierce Aerospace and Redwing Labs are developing a UAS
sandbox for the UNAIDS Innovations Exchange, where Redwing
Labs uses its long-range UAS to facilitate the delivery of medical
goods within a 50-kilometer radius. During this process, Pierce
Aerospace provides Remote ID to the aircraft, as well as to other
partners operating within the sandbox.
“Pierce Aerospace’s Remote ID technology is essential
to enable safe and scalable BVLOS operations for social and
commercial purposes,” says Anshul Sharma, cofounder of
Redwing Labs. “Redwing’s experience with drone delivery
combined with Pierce Aerospace’s Remote ID technology is an
important milestone for repetitive commercial deliveries.”
Having already showcased some of these components
in Papua New Guinea, Redwing Labs is now building capacity
towards increasing adoption of UAS deliveries across the world.
Another set of entities have teamed to deliver medical
supplies via drone, as a consortium made up of AT&T, Direct
Relief, Merck and Softbox recently completed a program that
tested the potential of using UAS to deliver temperature-
dependent medicines and vaccines to hard-to-reach locations.
During testing, a UAS flew over open water between the islands
of the Bahamas, beyond the operator’s line of sight.
“Experience and research consistently show that those most
at risk in disasters live in communities which are likely to be cut
off from essential health care due to disruption of transportation
and communications,” explains Andrew Schroeder, director of
research and analysis at Direct Relief. “Drone delivery is one of
the most promising answers to this problem.”
“Cold-chain” delivery technology was used during the fully
autonomous flight, allowing for precise control of temperatures
as low as minus 70 Celsius, which is the level needed to store
and transport some life-saving medicines and vaccines.
The technology used live, continuous temperature tracking
throughout the flight with cloud-based, real-time data analysis
and collection, which is designed to make sure that deliveries
are completed safely and effectively.
“While more remains to be done to operationalize medical
cargo drones in distress, successful tests like this one
demonstrate that remarkable new humanitarian capabilities are
emerging quickly,” Schroeder says.
The UAS used during testing were built and operated
by Volans-i. The temperature-controlled payload box was
developed by Softbox, and AT&T connected it. The idea was
initiated by Merck, whom provided its supply chain expertise
during testing.
The pilot was the fourth in a series of proof-of-concept
missions the consortium has conducted to showcase the
potential of using UAS to deliver temperature-controlled
medicines and vaccines. Previously, the group launched test
flights in Switzerland and Puerto Rico.
The organizations involved in this pilot plan to continue to look
into ways that this technology can be used to deliver life-saving
medicines and vaccines to the communities that need them
most.
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 25
 VIEWFINDER
This lovely view of Seattle’s skyline and Space Needle was submitted
by Michael Hill, the founder and CEO of Cumulus Imaging (www.
cumulusimaging.com). It was taken with a DJI Mavic Pro 2.

Have a great photo you’ve taken with an unmanned system? Send it to

Brett Davis at bdavis@auvsi.org

26 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 27
FEATURE

MARITIME ROBOTICS KEY TO MAINTAINING

U.S. ADVANTAGE IN UNDERSEA REALM
By Brian Sprowl

The United States currently enjoys a significant advantage inform the Navy of industries’ positions, to help the U.S.
in the undersea realm, but according to Christine Fox, senior maintain its advantage.
adviser at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics “By meeting with department leaders who prioritize
Laboratory, it is “absolutely the focus of competition and it UMS, the committee can act as an industry liaison and
is critically important from a national security perspective provide an external viewpoint on concepts like acquisition
that we not get complacent, especially since this is one of strategy, autonomy export controls, cybersecurity, and IT
the best deterrents that we have from any kind of hostility infrastructure,” Smitsky says. “As a result, industry can act
in the world.” as an accelerant and help the Navy adjust their focus where
For Fox, maintaining this advantage is a matter of necessary.”
creativity. Commercially, unmanned vehicles and robotics have the
“We need more, and we need more innovation in this realm,” potential to impact a number of industries such as oil and
Fox, who previously served as the acting deputy secretary gas, energy and aquaculture.
of defense, said during the 5th Annual Entrepreneur Forum From a commercial integration standpoint, one of the
in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in mid-July. biggest hurdles are the COLREGs. Traditionally, these set
“I think that unmanned underwater vehicles are really a of regulations provide the “rules of the road” for vessels
key to this, and I do believe that the department is waking to prevent collisions, but due to the increased presence of
up to that fact,” she said.
According to Mike Smitsky, AUVSI’s manager of advocacy
and government relations, maintaining this advantage will
also require the U.S. Navy continuing to prioritize unmanned
maritime systems (UMS) programs in its annual budget
requests.
Smitsky, who also manages and staffs AUVSI’s UMS
Advocacy Committee, notes that in fiscal year 2020,
the Navy requested several funding increases for UUV
programs, but that is just the start of a much longer
process.
“These ambitious requests demonstrate leadership
recognition that UUVs are critical to both the security
of the country and the future complexion of the
Naval fleet architecture. However, the battle
does not end here. These requests must be
authorized and appropriated,” he says.
Both the National Defense Authorization
Act and the Defense Appropriations Act
need to match the initial budget requests to
materialize the Navy’s vision. While the final
product does not always match the initial
requests, the UMS Advocacy Committee
can help in this process by educating House and Senate
offices who sit on the Armed Services and Appropriations
committees on the significance of UMS to the future of the
Navy.
“This process of consistently raising awareness about
the importance of UMS technologies to the security of
the nation ideally will help appropriations mirror the initial
request by the Navy,” he says.
He adds it is important to effectively articulate what
the Navy’s overall intent is with these programs, because
if congress doesn’t understand the context, it won’t fund
During the 5th Annual Entrepreneur Forum in Woods Hole,
these programs.
Massachusetts, Sea Machines demonstrated its autonomous
With the Navy being such a large entity with so much vessel. All Photos: AUVSI
on its plate, the UMS Advocacy Committee wants to help
28 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
UMS, COLREGs require “substantial updating,” Smitsky
says.
The rules are published by the International Maritime
Organization (IMO), which recently met to discuss
autonomous vessel integration and COLREGs. The U.S.
It is critically important
representative on the IMO is the United States Coast
Guard, which has previously received industry input on
from a national security
what these updated rules should take into consideration.
Other pieces of legislation include the Commercial
perspective that we
Engagement Through Ocean Technology (CENOTE) Act not get complacent,
of 2018, and the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2019,
which the U.S. House of Representatives approved in late especially since this
July. The bill moved to Senate at the time of publishing.
Signed into law Dec. 21, 2018, the CENOTE Act of is one of the best
2018 encourages partnerships between academia,
the private sector, and the government in the realm of deterrents that we have
ocean observation. The CENOTE Act of 2018 authorizes
the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and from any kind of hostility
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to “evaluate the use
of unmanned maritime system technology for use in data in the world.
collection.”
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of
–Christine Fox
2019 (CGAA 2019) is legislation that “reauthorizes
appropriations for the Coast Guard and Federal Maritime
Commission through Fiscal Year 2021.”
The bill also includes “regulatory improvements
to promote the U.S. maritime industry and offshore
renewable energy development, ongoing authorization
of funding to build new polar security cutters (heavy ice Tend Ocean demonstrates its Drone Tug during the 5th Annual
Entrepreneur Forum.
breakers), new requirements for the
Coast Guard to assess and evaluate
unmanned technologies for potential
use in Coast Guard operations,
provisions to increase diversity at the
U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and new
maritime safety enhancements.”
AUVSI’s UMS Advocacy Committee
played an influential role on section
416 of this bill, which “directs the
Commandant of the Coast Guard to
develop a plan for a demonstration
program that will assess the feasibility
of using unmanned maritime systems
for surveillance of marine protected
areas and to submit a report to
Congress on that plan.”
“Both of these bills are legislative
vehicles that provide additional
authorities for NOAA and the USCG
to deploy UMS technology,” Smitsky
says.

Collaboration
and innovation
One vehicle that has
helped the U.S. maintain its
advantage in the undersea
realm thus far is the Remote
Environmental Monitoring UnitS
(REMUS) AUV, designed for ocean
research.
Developed by Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in
Falmouth, Massachusetts, REMUS
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 29
was originally developed for coastal During his 35-year career with the Navy, Mike Connor, the founder, president
monitoring, but it can also be used and CEO of ThayerMahan, rose to the rank of vice admiral. Connor led the
for other tasks such as surveying and U.S. Navy Submarine Force’s move into robotic undersea systems, achieving
mapping, “traveling methodically over several milestones along the way, including the first operational deployment
an area like a lawnmower to sample key and recovery of an unmanned vehicle from a submarine.
ocean characteristics,” according to During the Entrepreneur Forum, Connor described the ocean as “an
WHOI. increasingly crowded place.”
Falmouth was the site of the 5th Annual Trying to conduct various tasks such as growing and catching food, or
Entrepreneur Forum that focused on harvesting wind energy, has become increasingly difficult against the backdrop
defining the challenges facing the marine of shipping traffic that has gone up about 400 percent in the last 15 years, and
robotics’ industry and framing initiatives the fact that there are a lot of new threats out there.
that the industry could undertake as a “In order to do all those things in the same space, without having disaster
collective to accelerate progress. strike, we have to do all those things more precisely and with better
REMUS is manufactured commercially information,” Connor said.
by the WHOI spinoff company Hydroid, a With that in mind, ThayerMahan focuses on developing systems that that
subsidiary of Kongsberg Maritime. can go to sea for 90 days or more at a time. The company finds vehicles,
With the potential for so many use generally off the shelf, and put payloads on them “to do useful things for what
cases, the Navy purchased REMUS and we think will be actual paying customers,” Connor said.
decided to use it for mine warfare, an area When offering fellow entrepreneurs in the room advice on how to establish
that has plagued the U.S. forever, Fox said,
because mines are very low cost, making
them easily accessible for any adversary
that wants to cause harm to the U.S.
With this in mind, the Navy decided to
adapt REMUS for mine warfare. Renaming
it Mk 18 Mod 1, the AUV was fielded
and proved very successful in helping
advance mine warfare. During Operation
Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the U.S. Navy
used REMUS vehicles to detect mines
in the Persian Gulf harbor of Umm Qasr.
Navy officers said they preferred REMUS
AUVs because each could do the work
of 12 to 16 human divers, and they were
“undeterred by cold temperatures, murky
water, sharks, or hunger,” according to
WHOI’s website.
Working in partnership with the
operational community, the Navy
upgraded Mk 18 Mod 1, resulting in Mk
18 Mod 2, which was possible due to the
vehicle’s modularity.
Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics
Laboratory is also taking advantage of
REMUS’ modularity, as it is injecting deep
learning algorithms into the vehicle to
help identify mines and achieve a lofty
goal it has set regarding mine warfare.
“Our aspirational goal at APL is to be
able to clear a minefield as fast as an
adversary can lay it,” Fox said.
While aspirational, improving the ability
to do the target recognition is a “very,
very important first step,” Fox added.

Lessons learned
To help “accelerate the United States’
ability to effectively and efficiently
monitor ocean activity using autonomous
systems,” one Navy alumnus has taken
the lessons learned during a prolific
career and is implementing them through
a company called ThayerMahan Inc.

30 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019

themselves within the industry, Connor said that it
was important for those developing this technology
to find their place within the ecosystem. He also said
that entrepreneurs in this industry should embrace an
unlikely entity for potential partnerships.
“The government is your partner, whether you want
them to be or not, because they might be a direct
customer, and they’re a good customer,” Connor said.
“They’re a challenging customer, and it takes a while to
get things in place, but once they are in place, they’re a
very reliable customer, and they pay faster than all of
my commercial customers.”
Those weren’t the only benefits to working with the
government, Connor noted.
“In many cases, they also set the rules, and if you’re
in a new industry like offshore wind, you can work with
your large partner and the government, and perhaps
influence the rules so that we can raise the standards,
so that as we coexist in the ocean environment, we do it
in a much more responsible way,” Connor said. “And that
involves, in many cases, educating the government on
the art of the possible. And you have to just be willing
to talk to all the people that it takes to make all those
things happen.”
Fox echoed those sentiments about partnership
between industry and the government.
“This, I think, is the future. This partnership that Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution demonstrates its JetYak
we can enjoy between national security needs in the Remote Surface Vehicle during the 5th Annual Entrepreneur Forum.
undersea realm and you,” Fox said.

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SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 31

COVER STORY
REGULATORY SMORGASBORD:
FAA DEVELOPING A MENU OF NEW
RULES TO OVERSEE THE BOOMING
UNMANNED AVIATION SECTOR
By Marc Selinger
The FAA’s efforts to oversee
commercial and recreational
unmanned aircraft systems seem to
be growing almost as quickly as the
industry itself.
With more than 1.4 million UAS now
registered with the FAA, a statistic
that did not even exist until a few
years ago, the agency is pursuing
several regulatory and other initiatives
to manage the increasing traffic to
ensure safe and efficient operations.
“This is a fast-moving industry, and
we’re doing our level best to keep up,”
then-acting FAA Administrator Daniel
Elwell said in a June speech. “The trick
is to mitigate safety risks without
putting the cuffs on technological and
operational advances.”
Chief among the FAA’s activities
is Remote Identification, which the
32 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
agency defines as “the ability of a
UAS in flight to provide identification
information that can be received by
other parties.”
‘Key enabler’
Remote ID will allow law enforcement
officers to determine the location of
an errant UAS and its control station.
It will also help pave the way for more
complex operations, including flights
over people and beyond-visual-line-of-
sight flights.
“I think that the Remote Identification
rule is a key enabler of really the next
step of integrating unmanned systems
into the airspace,” Stephen Dickson,
approved Aug. 12 to head the FAA,
testified at his confirmation hearing
before the Senate Commerce, Science
and Transportation Committee in May.
Michael Huerta, former FAA
Administrator and co-chair of the
The Blue Ribbon Task Force on UAS
Mitigation at Airports, discusses
the task force at Xponential 2019.
Photo: Becphotography
At a June hearing before the
committee’s security panel, Angela
Stubblefield, the FAA’s deputy associate
administrator for security and hazardous
materials safety, said the agency plans
to release a draft rule for Remote ID in
September.
“Remote Identification is the top
UAS rulemaking priority in the FAA right
now,” Stubblefield testified. “We are
putting all due resource to move that as
expeditiously as possible.”
The FAA Extension, Safety and
Security Act of 2016 “laid the
foundation” for the agency to work with
operators and its security partners on
how to address remote ID, Stubblefield
said. The FAA Reauthorization Act of
2018, which President Trump signed
into law in October, granted the FAA
authority to develop the rule.
Jay Merkle, executive director of the
FAA’s UAS Integration Office, told the
agency’s Drone Advisory Committee in
June that a final rule is likely up to two
years away.
“This is a complex rule, and the FAA
has been working diligently to draft
a rule that meets legal requirements
and provides the most comprehensive
proposal to enable the next phase of
UAS operations,” the FAA told Unmanned
Systems in a written response to
questions.
In the meantime, the FAA is exploring
whether UAS manufacturers or
operators could voluntarily equip UAS
with Remote ID.
Some lawmakers want the FAA, which
has been working on Remote ID for
years, to move more quickly. In an April
letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine
Chao, Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.)
and John Thune (R-S.D.), both members
of the Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee, urged the
FAA to “swiftly publish” the proposed
rule, citing recent drone sightings at
major U.S. and British airports and Boston’s Fenway Park
baseball stadium.
“Remote identification will enhance safety, security
and privacy, and serve as a critical tool for law
enforcement to respond to and address reports of
illegal and unauthorized drone operations,” the senators
wrote.
Exactly how the FAA will implement Remote ID
technologically is unclear. In September 2017, an FAA-
chartered panel, the UAS Identification and Tracking
Aviation Rulemaking Committee, recommended two
methods: direct broadcast, in which a drone sends out
data that anyone in broadcast range can receive, and
network publishing, in which a drone sends data to an
Internet service or federation of services. In December
2018, the FAA issued a request for information to form
an “industry cohort” to explore potential technological
approaches for Remote ID.
The Blue Ribbon Task Force on UAS Mitigation at
Airports, formed by the Airports Council International-
North America (ACI-NA) and AUVSI, has urged the FAA
and Transport Canada to make Remote ID interoperable
with air traffic control (ATC) systems so that a drone’s ID
and position information could be sent automatically to
ATC and public safety personnel.
In an interim report released in July, the task force
also suggested making Remote ID “interoperable
internationally” so it works in countries besides the
United States and Canada.
In addition, the task force recommended the FAA and
Transport Canada not exempt hobbyists from Remote
ID and consider requiring manufacturers and retailers to
include Remote ID in their products.
At press time, the task force, which is
cochaired by former FAA Administrator
The FAA is working on
rules to allow drones Michael Huerta and Los Angeles World
to fly over people. Airports CEO Deborah Flint, was slated
Photo: AUVSI to release a more-detailed report in
September.
Since malicious operators, such as
terrorists, could try to conceal their
identification, the FAA continues to
explore systems that could detect and
mitigate UAS at airports. Stubblefield
said the agency plans to test such
technology at several airports.
“The FAA is in the process of setting up a program and timeline,
using a methodical and iterative approach to ensure it provides
valuable data to the FAA, other government agencies at all levels,
vendors of UAS detection and mitigation systems, and potential
users,” the agency said. “We are still determining the selection
process for the airports and systems at this time.”
Spurred by Congress, the FAA is also developing standards for
the eventual widespread deployment of counter-UAS systems.
Although the FAA has already tried out detection systems at
four airports, that pilot program, which took place from February
2016 to December 2017, revealed that such technology was
not ready for mass deployment. Experts say each kind of sensor
has limitations and that fielded systems will need to integrate
several types of sensors to avoid gaps in coverage.
With some airports trying out UAS detection systems on their
own, the FAA sent out “informational correspondence” in May
cautioning airports about using such systems, Stubblefield said.
Among the FAA’s concerns is that such systems might produce
inaccurate information that could spur “a reaction that is more
detrimental than the errant UAS itself.”
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 33

More rules
The FAA is working on several additional regulations
and other efforts to integrate UAS into the national
airspace.
A proposed rule published in February would permit
small UAS to fly over people and at night without
waivers under certain conditions. According to the FAA,
sectors that could benefit from the rule include motion
picture filming, newsgathering, law enforcement, aerial
and sports photography, construction and surveying.
The proposal “would benefit the economy and
encourage innovation and growth across a variety of
sectors,” the document says.
While public comments were due in April, the FAA has
indicated that it does not plan to finalize the UAS-over-
people regulation until the Remote ID rule is finished.
An interim final rule published in February requires
small UAS to have external markings similar to those
used in manned aviation.
Stubblefield testified that the rule, which directs
small UAS owners to display their FAA registration
numbers on the outside of their aircraft, came in
response to concerns that first responders could set
off concealed bombs when they open compartments
to look for registration numbers.
The rule “will enhance safety and security by allowing
a person to view the unique identifier directly without
handling the drone,” the agency said.
The rule is considered interim because the FAA
invited public comment to determine whether it should
alter any of the provisions.
“The FAA issues interim final rules when delaying
implementation of the rule would be impractical,
unnecessary or contrary to the public interest,” the
agency said. “In this case, the agency has determined
the importance of mitigating the risk to first responders
outweighs the minimal inconvenience this change
may impose on small drone owners and justifies
implementation without a prior public comment period.”
34 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
Then-acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell speaks
at the FAA UAS Symposium held earlier this year.
Photo: AUVSI
Seeking ‘broad thinking’
An advance notice of proposed rulemaking
(ANPRM) recently sought public comment on
whether the FAA should impose more mandates
to protect other aircraft, people on the ground or
national security.
Examples of potential additional requirements
could include stand-off distances, payload
restrictions, redundancy of critical systems, the
use of a UAS traffic management system and
limits on airspeed, altitude and performance.
The notice was designed to encourage “broad
thinking,” according to Elwell.
“9/11 taught us a lot as an industry and as a
nation,” Elwell said. “We want to use this advance
notice to make sure we don’t have to learn any of
those lessons twice.”
The 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act requires
the FAA to develop an aeronautical knowledge
and safety test for recreational flyers. At press
time, the FAA was planning to release a request
for information with the goal of developing
partnerships with commercial, nonprofit, academic
or other private entities that will administer the
test.
Not all of the FAA’s UAS efforts involve new
regulations. In July, the FAA expanded the Low
Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability
(LAANC) system to recreational users. Commercial
operators were already using the automated
system to expedite receiving approval to fly
drones under 400 feet in controlled airspace.
“A key advantage of LAANC is that it offers drone
operators more flexibility and reduces the time it
takes to receive airspace authorizations to mere
seconds instead of the weeks that it used to take
through the manual process,” an FAA educational
video says. “A further benefit is that LAANC allows
air traffic managers to see where planned drone
operations will take place.”
By Sept. 30, the FAA plans to award contracts
to continue testing key technologies needed to
support more advanced operations, such as the
ability of UAS to sense and avoid each other.
As part of its campaign to promote UAS safety,
the FAA intends to hold the first annual National
Drone Safety Awareness Week in November.
“Throughout the week,” the agency said, “we are
asking leaders in the drone community to share
safety messages and help educate new flyers
about aviation safety culture, as well as drone
regulations, best practices and technologies.”
 Boston's iconic
Fenway Park was the
scene of a recent
drone incursion,
spurring lawmakers
to call for expedited
rules about the
remote identification
of drones. Photo:
Chloe Svolos

SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 35

FEATURE
MANAGING AUTONOMY:
REGULATORS SEEK TO PROMOTE THE AV INDUSTRY,
BOOST SAFETY, PROTECT SPECTRUM By Brett Davis
Ray Martinez, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, said his agency is seeking to remove outdated
regulations on self-driving trucks. All photos: AUVSI
Automotive industry regulators, in the United States in particular,
are seeking to remove regulatory restrictions on the development
and testing of autonomous vehicles without compromising job No.
1 — safety.
“There is widespread recognition that automated vehicles will
coexist with conventional vehicles and at some point operate
side-by-side with them on the highways,” said Nicole Nason,
administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA),
one of several government speakers at the Automated Vehicles
Symposium held in Orlando in July.
“And to this point, I want to affirm the department’s position this
morning regarding freedom of the open road. We want to protect
the freedom of all Americans to make mobility choices that best
serve their needs,” she said at the event, cosponsored by AUVSI
and the Transportation Research Board.
The Department of Transportation updated its automated vehicle
guidance last fall to the 3.0 version, which provides guidance on
technology development and managing safety risks and “clarifies
roles to avoid the conflicting patchwork of regulations that hamper
innovation and provide best practices.”
The latest version reaffirms statements from earlier versions
that the DOT will prioritize safety, remain technologically neutral —
that is, it won’t specify any particular technology or system — and
will modernize regulations, including by getting rid of current ones
that may be outdated.
The guidance notes that going forward, DOT will interpret the
36 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
words driver and operator “to recognize that such terms do
not refer exclusively to a human, but may in fact include an
automated system.”
AV 3.0 expands its look at automated vehicles to include
commercial vehicles and infrastructure and reaffirms
the previous direction that the DOT will rely on a self-
certification approach, rather than vehicle type approval, as
a way to “balance and promote safety and innovation,” and
will push this approach to the international community.
It also says the DOT will continue to work to preserve
the ability of transportation safety applications to function
in the 5.9 GHz spectrum, something that was mentioned
by every government speaker at the Automated Vehicles
Symposium.
Spectrum squabble
The 5.9 GHz band traditionally has been reserved
for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, but the Federal
Communications Commission has for years been eyeing
part of it for other uses, including faster wi-fi.
“I believe that the time has come for the FCC to take
a fresh look at this band,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a
speech at the Wi-Fi World Congress in Virginia in May. “We
should open up a rulemaking proceeding, seek comment on
various proposals for the band’s future, and use the record
that we compile to make a final decision on how the band
should be allocated.”
He noted the band has been reserved for vehicular
communications and maybe that should still be the case,
but added, “I am quite skeptical that this is a good idea.”
Instead, Pai said the spectrum could be shared between
vehicle-to-vehicle uses and unlicensed devices such as cell
phones and internet providers, some of it could be reserved
for V-to-V communications, “or we could allocate the entire
75 MHz band exclusively for unlicensed use. Making the
right choice won’t be easy.”
Transportation speakers at the symposium said the
spectrum needs to be available for automated vehicles.
“The department wants to ensure there is sufficient
bandwidth for automated vehicles to operate,” Nason said.
“The 5.9 Ghz band is of “critical importance to us” to reduce
crashes, injuries and fatalities — “that’s why we call it the
safety band.”
Ray Martinez, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration, which regulates commercial
trucking, echoed that point when he spoke at the
Automated Vehicles Symposium.
“We must ensure that the use of the safety band is
protected,” he said. “We believe that is critical.”
The band is used for vehicle-to-vehicle communication,
pedestrian detection, traffic monitoring, travel
alerts, and much more, she said.
“The safety band is at the heart of our efforts to
make these new AV technologies interoperable,”
Nason said. “All of these systems ... must work
seamlessly together.”
Finch Fulton, the deputy assistant secretary for
transportation policy, noted that every DOT speaker
at the symposium highlighted the importance of
the spectrum and said Secretary of Transportation
Elaine Chao is personally involved in the issue.
“I can tell you, if that gives you a lot of comfort,
you’re not understanding what we’re saying,” Fulton
said. “... Every bit of the 70 MHz of the spectrum
we’re talking about is being used throughout the
country in deployments today, but as we look toward
the future of this spectrum and as we think through
the connected technologies and the efficiency and
all the benefits it can bring, we do have to work with
the FCC.”
If rulemaking opens up at the FCC, he said, deployment, especially during the testing and
transportation stakeholders who believe in The DOT’s Finch Fulton verification period.”
reserving it for safety uses need to speak up, as the called on the industry FHWA has its own multi-modal research
voice of the DOT won’t be enough. to lend its voice in program, the Cooperative Automation
“The call to action is for you to pay attention at protecting spectrum Research Mobility Application (Carma)
what’s happening at the FCC and make your voices for automated platform, an open-source platform that “is
vehicles. trying to accelerate cooperative driving
heard if you truly believe that the safety spectrum
needs to be used for these purposes going forward,” automation” by blending communication
Fulton said. technology with AV functionality.
However, in the AV 3.0 document, the DOT noted It has two components, Carma Platform
it is working on a pilot program with the FCC on a test and Carma Cloud. The platform lets
plan to share the spectrum as long as it maintains automated vehicles communicate with smart
priority use for vehicle safety communications. infrastructure through Carma Cloud. It was
made available as open-source software last
Seeking input year “and today we are launching an updated
version of it.
Meanwhile, the DOT and its departments are “Carma’s goal is to accelerate understanding
seeking to reduce regulations on automated of the benefits of cooperative automation by
vehicles, such as by updating the Manual on Uniform testing shared maneuvers such as vehicle
Traffic Control Devices for the first time in a decade. platooning, speed harmonization, cooperative
“We will be asking for public input later this Dataspeed also
conducted outdoor lane change and merge functions, [and]
year,” Nason said. “The updated version will reflect coordination of signalized intersections.”
automated vehicle
advances in technology over the past decade and She noted that competitors are teaming to
demonstrations at
support the operation of AVs. So, I really want to AVS 2019. solve problems together, “and I think that’s the
stress — if you’re interested, you need to comment. only way we will achieve success.”
We read every comment. It’s been a decade since
we’ve updated it.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration are also seeking comment on a
proposal to remove some regulatory barriers to
the development of automated systems. Martinez
said this is part of the DOT’s overall approach to
automated technology.
“We’re not coming in here with a heavy hand. ...
we are coming to listen and we’re coming with an
invitation” to talk to the government, he said. “This
is not going to be a top-down environment.”
As part of its outreach, last year FHWA conducted
a series of six workshops on AV integration with
transportation stakeholders around the country.
“... Safety was the main takeaway of all the
workshops,” Nason said. “It will be critical to not
only ensure safety when AVs are fully deployed,
but also while they’re in the process of reaching full
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 37

Legislation ‘inevitable’
Congress has considered weighing in on the burgeoning
autonomous vehicle industry but failed to pass legislation last year.
The House of Representatives went first, passing the Self
Drive Act in the fall of 2017. The Senate companion piece was the
American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of
Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) ACT.
“The legislation built on our existing regulatory framework to
prioritize safety while also removing unintentional barriers to
innovation in existing law, “ said Cheri Pascoe, senior professional
staff member and investigator for the Senate Committee on
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| UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
Nicole Nason, administrator of the Federal
Highway Administration, said the DOT wants
to protect the freedom of Americans “to
make mobility choices.”
Commerce, Science and Transportation.
“And that balance between safety and innovation is a
key part if you are to allow innovation to continue to thrive
while also ensuring the technology is safe and reliable,”
said Pascoe, who led that bill’s development, speaking at
the Automated Vehicles Symposium.
As with the recent DOT moves, the legislation would
have removed references to human drivers in some
instances and leaned on industry to self-regulate and
publicly report on safety data.
“Overall, we’ve all had to force ourselves to think
beyond the traditional 20th Century conception and
regulation of a car. Yet that remains a huge challenge
for many,” and the legislation was not approved, with the
government shutdown not helping.
Most bills don’t become law, and “AV Start Act and
Self Drive got closer than most,” she said. “They also
represented a rare glimpse of bipartisanship in Congress.”
The legislation had a wide base of support, including
from consumer advocates and disability advocates, but
some highly publicized negative incidents didn’t help,
“and some are struggling with the basic premise that we
should be advancing automated vehicles.”
Congress can’t be counted out, Pascoe said, because
“as long as AVs are inevitable, I believe federal legislation
is inevitable.”
DA 3
6-LP
28.07.19 19:47
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CHAPTER NEWS
Saguaro
AUVSI Saguaro participated at the Chief Science Officer
(CSO) program on July 18, 2019 at Arizona State University.
The CSO program was created to increase the pipeline of
diverse STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)
leaders and enrich school STEM culture and career awareness
globally. CSOs are students in grades 6-12 who are elected by
their peers to be liaison for STEM in their schools and in their
communities.
It was an honor to exhibit and showcase the chapter’s
education outreach, a chapter pillar promoting education that
builds and attracts future experts and leaders in unmanned
systems. CSOs were from all over the world, including
Kenya, Mexico and Kuwait. So many were interested in drone
technology and future careers.
Many wanted to grow their programs at their school and
their International Leadership Council CSO wanted to have
a global outreach through AUVSI. Please reach out to the
Saguaro Chapter if you or your company would like to discuss
opportunities that engage with these CSOs and help their
program grow around the world (chiefscienceofficers.org).
Hampton Roads
The Hampton Roads Chapter, in conjunction with the Virginia
AeroSpace Business Association, is hosting the first Unmanned
Systems Symposium and Aerospace Gala at the Hampton
Roads Convention Center, Oct. 24-25.
Please join us as we highlight existing capabilities and
operational shortfalls in the UMS environment as we bring
together experts and consumers of UMS from the U.S. Air
Force, Army, Navy, NASA, state and local government, industry,
and academia. Proceeds support robotics programs in Hampton
Roads schools.
Our keynote Speaker is Brian Wynne, president and CEO
of AUVSI. Opportunities are available to exhibit and sponsor
various activities.
For information on the event go to: auvsi.net/hamptonroads/
symposiumgala/symposium, or email Mike Archuleta at arch@
archandassoc.com.
Ridge and Valley
The Ridge & Valley Chapter will host its 3rd Annual Unmanned
Systems Symposium Oct. 15-16 in Blacksburg, Virginia. The
symposium theme — The Power of Partnership — speaks
40 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
to the technical challenges and opportunities afforded by
the increasing connectedness of unmanned systems, their
developers, and the human workers they support.
Keynote speakers include Ryan Eustice, senior vice president
of automated driving at Toyota Research Institute, and Bala
Ganesh, vice president of UPS’ Advanced Technology Group.
For more information, visit: auvsiridgeandvalley.org/event/
ridge-valley-auvsi-chapter-conference-2
Great Plains
The Great Plains chapter announced that Northland
Community & Technical College was awarded a $7 million
Advanced Technological Education grant from the National
Science Foundation.
This grant will facilitate the formation of the National
Center for Autonomous Technologies (NCAT), to be hosted
on Northland’s Aerospace site in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.
Northland will partner with St. Cloud State University, Marine
Advanced Technology Education Inspiration for Innovation
(MATE II), the Center for Advanced Automotive Technology,
National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence and
the Minnesota State Transportation Center of Excellence to
educate and promote autonomous technologies throughout
the United States.
The NCAT will focus on air, land and sea autonomous
technologies: drones; connected, automated vehicles; and
unmanned underwater vehicles.
“Our mission has four main tenets: To educate the educators,
to promote student involvement, engage the workforce and
community, and to act as an education hub for autonomous
technology across the country,” says Curtis Zoller, Northland’s
associate dean of aerospace and agriculture.
San Diego
The Mira Costa TCI Unmanned Systems Program invited
AUVSI San Diego to partner and participate in the U.S. Army
Futures Command (AFC) and AI Hub (Carnegie Mellon University)
visit to San Diego on July 30.
AFC and AI Hub visited San Diego to interact with key San
Diego and Southern California-based UAS companies, working
both in software and hardware. CMU AI Hub’s intent is to share
their mission and capabilities, to help solve key technology
gaps.
Participants gathered at the Oceanside campus located
in North County San Diego for overviews, one-on-one
presentations, demonstrations of capabilities and to provide
feedback.
The Army activated its AI Task Force at the birthplace of AI
itself — Carnegie Mellon University — earlier this year. This
activation augments the Army’s long-standing commitment to
modernization and future technology, while also strengthening
its ties to fundamental research in academia.
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JOIN AUVSI
For information on joining a chapter, contact:
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abernhardt@auvsi.org

To visit local chapter websites, scan this QR code

or visit auvsi.org/MembershipandChapters/Chapters >
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 41
FAR OUT
MIT RESEARCHERS HELP DRIVERLESS CARS,
ROBOTS SPOT OBJECTS AMID CLUTTER
By Brian Sprowl
Researchers at MIT say they have developed a
technique that allows robots to quickly identify
objects hidden in a three-dimensional cloud of
data.
According to the researchers, sensors that
collect and translate a visual scene into a matrix
of dots help robots “see” their environment. The
researchers note, though, that conventional
techniques that try to pick out objects from such
clouds of dots, or point clouds, can do so with
either speed or accuracy, but not both.
With the new technique developed by MIT
researchers, it takes a robot just seconds from
when it receives the visual data to accurately pick
out an object that is otherwise obscured within
a dense cloud of dots, such as a small animal.
This technique can help improve a variety of
situations in which machine perception must be
both speedy and accurate, the researchers say,
including driverless cars and robotic assistants
in the factory and the home.
“The surprising thing about this work is, if I ask
you to find a bunny in this cloud of thousands
of points, there’s no way you could do that,”
says Luca Carlone, assistant professor of
aeronautics and astronautics and a member of
MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision
Systems (LIDS). “But our algorithm is able to
see the object through all this clutter. So, we’re
getting to a level of superhuman performance in
localizing objects.”
42 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | SEPTEMBER 2019
Currently, robots attempt to identify objects
in a point cloud by comparing a template object,
Finding an object
in a point cloud
i.e. a 3-D dot representation of an object such as
can be tricky for a rabbit, with a point cloud representation of the
vision systems, but real world that may contain that object.
MIT researchers The template image includes collections of
have developed dots — also known as features — that indicate
a technique that characteristic curvatures or angles of that
allows them to find object, such as the ear or tail of the bunny. Similar
hidden objects
features from the real-life point cloud are first
quickly. Image: MIT
extracted by existing algorithms, and then those
algorithms attempt to match those features
and the template’s features, and ultimately
rotate and align the features to the template to
determine if the point cloud contains the object
in question.
The point cloud data that streams into a robot’s
sensor includes errors, though, as the dots are in
the wrong position or incorrectly spaced, which
can cause great confusion in the process of
feature extraction and matching. Consequently,
robots can make a lot of wrong associations
— or “outliers,” as researchers call them —
between point clouds, which ultimately leads to
the misidentification of objects, or missing them
entirely.
According to Carlone, state-of-the-art
algorithms can recognize the bad associations
from the good once features have been matched,
but this can take an “exponential” amount
of time. While accurate, these techniques
are “impractical” for analyzing larger, real-life datasets object in a point cloud.” So the MIT team has developed a
containing dense point clouds, researchers say. “convex relaxation” algorithm that simplifies the topographic
Other algorithms that can quickly identify features and map, with one single valley representing the optimal rotation.
associations “do so hastily,” which creates a lot of outliers or “In this way, the algorithm is able to quickly identify the
mis-detections in the process, without being aware of these rotation that defines the orientation of the object in the
errors, the researchers say. point cloud,” the researchers say.
“That’s terrible if this is running on a self-driving car, or With its approach, the team says that it was able to quickly
any safety-critical application,” Carlone says. “Failing without and accurately identify three different objects hidden in
knowing you’re failing is the worst thing an algorithm can do.” point clouds of increasing density. The team was also able
to identify objects in real-life scenes, including a living room,
in which the algorithm was able to quickly spot a cereal box
Pruning outliers and a baseball hat.
Because the approach can work in “polynomial time,” it
With this in mind, Carlone and graduate student Heng Yang
can be easily scaled up to analyze even denser point clouds,
have developed a technique that “prunes away” outliers
which resembles the complexity of sensor data for driverless
in “polynomial time,” which means that it can do so quickly,
cars, for example.
even for increasingly dense clouds of dots. As a result, the
“Navigation, collaborative manufacturing, domestic
technique can quickly and accurately identify objects hidden
robots, search and rescue, and self-driving cars is where we
in cluttered scenes.
hope to make an impact,” Carlone says.
Conventional techniques were first used by researchers
to extract features of a template object from a point cloud.
After this, the researchers developed a three-step process
to match the size, position, and orientation of the object in a
point cloud with the template object, while at the same time
identifying good from bad feature associations.
To prune outliers and match an object’s size and position, Navigation, collaborative
researchers developed an “adaptive voting scheme”
algorithm. For size, the algorithm makes associations manufacturing, domestic robots,
between template and point cloud features, and then
compares the relative distance between features in a search and rescue, and self-
template and corresponding features in the point cloud. If,
for instance, the distance between two features in the point driving cars is where we hope to
cloud is five times that of the corresponding points in the
template, the algorithm assigns a “vote” to the hypothesis make an impact.
that the object is five times larger than the template object.
The algorithm does this for every feature association, and
–Carlone
it then selects those associations that fall under the size
hypothesis with the most votes, and identifies those as the
correct associations, while pruning away the others.
“In this way, the technique simultaneously reveals the
correct associations and the relative size of the object
represented by those associations. The same process is
used to determine the object’s position,” the researchers
The new technique can improve a variety of situations where
explain. machine perception must be speedy and accurate, such as in
For rotation, the researchers developed a separate self-driving cars. Image: iStockphoto
algorithm, which finds the orientation of the template object
in three-dimensional space.
Researchers says this “is an incredibly tricky computational
task.
“Imagine holding a mug and trying to tilt it just so, to match
a blurry image of something that might be that same mug,”
the researchers say. “There are any number of angles you
could tilt that mug, and each of those angles has a certain
likelihood of matching the blurry image.”
To handle this problem, current techniques consider each
possible tilt or rotation of the object as a “cost,” so the
lower the cost, the more likely that that rotation creates
an accurate match between features. A topographic map
of sorts represents each rotation and associated cost,
consisting of a multiple hills and valleys, with lower elevations
associated with lower cost.
According to Carlone, though, this can easily confuse an
algorithm, especially if there are a number of different valleys
and no discernible lowest point representing the “true, exact
match between a particular rotation of an object and the
SEPTEMBER 2019 | UNMANNED SYSTEMS | 43
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AUVSI membership allows you to contribute to the unified voice of the unmanned
systems industry as we advocate for policies and regulations that encourage
industry growth and innovation.

Learn more at
auvsi.org/why-join-auvsi