California UAS Summit Report

uas summitMore than 300 California UAS industry stakeholders packed a Point Loma conference centre to mull how the state can dominate the UAS business despite all the questions hovering around it.

Organisers wanted to rally the region’s largest UAS-makers as well as the small firms and researchers key to the industry’s growth behind an effort to make the state, and perhaps UC San Diego, a national drone research hub.

Big concerns about regulations, negative public perceptions and other potential pitfalls for the industry also got significant airtime at the Tuesday gathering.

Here are some key takeaways from the California Unmanned Aircraft Systems Summit.

There’s a wide range of UAS innovators in California.

A big reason organisers believe California is uniquely poised to serve as an industry research centre: the hugely diverse group of UAS-makers.

Panelists included executives from traditional military UAS producers such as Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, plus small UAS manufacturer AeroVironment, which announced Tuesday its UAS were the first to receive FAA approval for commercial flights.

Then there were the much smaller companies, such as CTJ & Associates LLC, which has an office in Scripps Ranch. The company, which currently employs 29 people, builds solar-powered UAS platforms that can remain in the air for up to 90 days, far longer than the Global Hawk or Predator, which the military uses to conduct surveillance, can fly.

Southern California is also home to UAS software developers. Los Angeles-based DreamHammer built an operating system used by Lockheed Martin and others. CEO Nelson Paez talked up the possibilities for others to get into the UAS software market. There’s a need for dozens of apps that assist firefighters, survey land and serve law enforcement needs, he said.

Boosters are convinced the state’s biggest challenge is “getting out of its own way.”

Organisers behind a statewide bid to become an FAA-appointed research centre for UAS are determined to overcome roadblocks that the industry might face.

Organisers and panelists emphasised the need to get key leaders on board. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s public push for drone privacy regulations came up more than once – participants believe it’s a problem for the California UAS industry.

“California’s biggest challenge is getting out of its own way,” said Terry Magee of the San Diego Military Advisory Council, whose group helped put together the event.

If California doesn’t step up and embrace the industry, key players will pack up and move, he said.

After the event, Magee said California has a tendency to think the FAA and other groups already recognize its offerings. But he said emphasizing what’s going on here and coalescing behind the industry is essential to ensure it thrives.

Fellow event organizer Matt Sanford of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. told me he sees the gathering as a starting point to ensure the industry can work together to combat its challenges and so  leaders across the state can understand those concerns and try to address them. Sanford and Magee also hope the event inspired various stakeholders to get behind that state FAA bid.

“It’s ours to lose so we need to make sure we do it right,” Sanford said.

California companies are peeved with the FAA.

The FAA essentially banned commercial UAS flights in 2007, and has been working on regulations to safely fly them ever since. Academics and UAS company executives say the dearth of rules is the single biggest detriment to their growth.

The FAA must develop rules for larger UAS by September 2015 and has promised to release guidelines for devices under 55 pounds by the end of the year.

That’s not fast enough for the industry.

Gretchen West, Executive Vice-President of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, claimed in her Tuesday keynote speech that the lack of FAA rules has hurt the U.S. to the tune of $10 billion a year.

“We want the same access (to U.S. skies) as the manned aircraft,” said Chris Ames, who leads international strategic development for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which has a major San Diego presence. “It’s important to the continued vibrancy of the industry.”

But Charles Johnson of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, south of Bakersfield, highlighted another reality.

“It’s not (the FAA’s) role to enable UAS access,” Johnson said. “It’s their goal to make sure the system is safe enough.”

Johnson, whose role with NASA means he regularly works with the FAA, said he’s confident the FAA isn’t purposely dragging its feet.

The industry wants to bolster its bad reputation

There was lots of talk about combating negative perceptions about UAS. Small companies that produce small UAS were particularly vocal.

Roy Minson of SoCal-based AeroVironment, the military’s chief small UAS provider, confessed he fears a disaster could doom the public’s view on UAS. A UAS crash that kills someone. A UAS that triggers a major privacy breach.

“Our greatest fear is somebody doing something they shouldn’t do,” he said.

One attendee questioned whether the UAS industry should get behind public service announcements. Milk and pork producers have touted their products to the public. Why not UAS?

Paez said UAS companies need to do a better job explaining how the gadgets can be used for good.

“You can talk about advocacy but we need to make UAS more valuable to more people,” he said.

Even some UAS fans question whether there’s truth to public fears

Monday night episode of Fox’s “24″ got some buzz at the summit. This week’s bad guy was an adversary who took control of several UAS and ordered an attack on a London hospital.

So one attendee had to ask: Should we be worried about scenarios like this?

The answer from Jerry Beaman, who leads Kratos Defense’s combat UAS section, didn’t completely take that possibility off the table.

“As we are heavily engaged in cybersecurity, those same principles and securities are being applied to what we do with our aircraft,” Beaman said. “I don’t know that I can sit here and give you a 100 percent guarantee it couldn’t happen but I can give you a 100 percent guarantee that we are going to do everything humanely possible to prevent that from happening.”

There’s not much agreement on what to call these unmanned flying things

The industry isn’t a big fan of the term “drone” itself – but most of the alternatives it’s mustered so far are a confusing mishmash of acronyms: UASs, UAVs, sUAS, RPAs.

I heard almost all of those Tuesday.

West and many panelists addressed the confusion.

“What should we be calling ourselves as an industry?” West asked during her keynote speech. “I think this is a conversation that really needs to happen. … I don’t have an answer today.”

California researchers are increasingly using UAS, sometimes under the radar

Business leaders aren’t the only ones frustrated with the delay in FAA regulations.

Jason Miller, a researcher at Cal State Channel Islands, said professors there are eager to use UAS to study everything from whales to environmental changes but the lack of clarity from the FAA is hampering them.

Like businesses, universities struggle to get the FAA’s OK to fly UAS.

“Until there’s a way forward or until universities are willing to challenge the FAA, innovations will happen underground,” Miller said.

But that hasn’t stopped all universities from testing or using them.

Engineering professor John Kosmatka of UC San Diego detailed several UAS-related projects his students have worked on. Perhaps the most surprising one was a partnership with the University of Naples in Italy. Kosmatka said the school worked with the Italian government on an aircraft that would catch polluters in the act.

Things get more complicated stateside. Kosmatka said he and his students frequently must drive to approved flight sites to test their work.

Photo: Sam Hodgson

Source: Voice of San Diego

One comment

  1. Its seems odd to me to be worried about a bad scenario like someone getting killed by UAS will end all UAS. We have car wrecks and plane crashes people shooting people and none of that stops the production of those commercial products. We will just need regulations and liability insurance like everything else especially for line of sight flying and equipment under 10 lbs.

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