XPONENTIAL Wrap Up – Drone Industry Trends from Our Team
The A2Z team recently traveled to Denver, CO for the 50th anniversary meeting of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) XPONENTIAL Conference. Once again, this year’s show did not disappoint!
We unveiled our new RDSX Pelican long range delivery drone at the expo. The reception was quite overwhelming. From legacy leaders in the drone delivery space interested in integrating the new Pelican into their drone fleets, to exciting new international partnerships opportunities, and innovative hardware and software developers eager to push the boundaries of drone capabilities, our booth was a busy space throughout the show.
Now that the show is in the rearview mirror, we’ve been able to look back and identify some interesting threads that wove through the show.
Latin American Market Heating Up
As we reviewed our meeting notes from the expo, it was amazing how much interest we saw for our commercial cargo drone and drone winch from drone service providers throughout Latin America. It certainly makes a lot of sense. Some Latin American countries have minimal regulation related to UAS delivery. Countries like Uruguay simply absorbed commercial drone flights into their air traffic control operations. In Ecuador, the government has embraced drone delivery. One drone delivery firm operating in Quito is already conducting between 100-300 deliveries per week along pre-determined delivery routes.
Collaboration is the Name of the Game
Over the past few years, the drone delivery sector was becoming more and more insular with major players leveraging drones for logistics operations developing closed source ecosystems. At this year’s XPONENTIAL, that trend took a major turn. One of the major themes of the show was focused on how we can all work together to further drone operations. The extent of integration conversations our team had at the show certainly highlights this exciting trend too. With our RDS2 UAS winch able to be mounted on just about any drone airframe, a lot of drone service providers were eager to integrate delivery capabilities with their existing fleets.
Drone Delivery Was a Huge Part of the Show
One of the major rollouts at the show was the AUVSI’s “Blueprint for Autonomy,” a comprehensive overview of where the US drone industry stands today, and what the next steps will be to expand drone use cases in America. Part of that blueprint focuses on legislative actions that are currently underway to bring regulations up to speed with the industry’s newest capabilities. Throughout the show, there was a huge presence from drone delivery providers, hardware developers like A2Z, and key stakeholders in the regulatory world. Based on the amount of excitement among these groups, it is starting to sound like some regulatory flexibility will be coming to the US soon.
