The UAS activities in the Latin America are constantly growing. There are ongoing UAS developments (civil & military) in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. There are currently UAS operations (civil and/or military) ongoing in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
UAS are being used for flare stack inspection, illegal fishery patrol, agricultural applications, police applications (illegal airport detection, anti-drug traffic patrol, illegal mining activity detection), aerial photography, as well as regular military applications.
It is within this context, that UVS International, Paris, France and DCA-BR, Sao José dos Campos, Brazil have teamed to co-organize, within the framework of UVS International’s Global Access Initiative, the UAS Latin America 2011 conference in Sao José dos Campos (SP), Brazil on 25-27 October 2011.
The following are among the objectives of this conference:
- Bring the Latin American UAS community [industry, users, operators, regulatory authorities (civil & military), academia] together;
- Permit this community to communicate on their current and upcoming developments and activities;
- Discuss the problems relative to inserting UAS in non-segregated airspace;- Expose the ongoing UAS-related regulatory activities at international level, as well as various national levels;
- Inform on ongoing standards work outside of Latin America and discuss the possibilities, and interest, for the Latin American UAS industry to participate in these activities;
- Discuss operational experience and lessons learned;
- Act as a forum to establish relations with suppliers of UAS-related products and services from outside Latin America.
The conference programme (40 confirmed speakers from 15 countries + 2 international organizations + 2 pluri-national European organizations), as well as all other event-related information, is now posted on www.uas2011-latin-america.org.
By Peter van Blyenburgh & Luiz Munaretto – Paris, France & Sao José dos Campos, Brazil