Commercial UAV Expo 2023: the top product drops and drone news
This past week was all about Commercial UAV Expo 2023, which is one of the world’s largest drone trade shows and was held this week at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. As one of the top drone events of 2023, it was filled with all sorts of product drops and other big news from the drone world.
The Commercial UAV Expo 2023 ran from Tuesday, Sept. 5 through Thursday, Sept. 7. And now that everything is all wrapped up, here’s a look at the highlights:
Sony launches ILX-LR1 camera
This was such huge news that it got its own post on TheDroneGirl.com earlier this week. But in case you missed it, here’s a quick recap: Sony just released an ultra-tiny camera that could be a game changer for enterprise drone pilots.
The all-new, ILX-LR1 Professional Camera is a full-frame, interchangeable lens camera capable of extremely high resolutions (it’s a 61 MP sensor), with a backside illuminated sensor that can works with the Sony Camera Remote SDK. Although Sony didn’t design it solely for use in drones, the designers definitely had drones top-of-mind when building this tiny, mighty camera. In short, the new Sony ILX-LR1 camera a is a big deal for industrial applications within the drone industry.
Read more about the ILX-LR1 camera here.
FAA suggests Remote ID deadline might get pushed back
Drone remote ID rules are supposedly set to apply as of September 16 — but many operators are not ready. Much of it has to do with the fact that Remote ID modules are out of stock, so people could hardly be ready even if they tried to be.
But one FAA leader suggested that the FAA might not actual enforce the Remote ID rules come Sept. 16.
“You’re going to get relief, it’s just a matter of what that relief looks like,” said David Boulter, the associate administrator for aviation safety, said during a panel at the Commercial UAV Expo. “This is a supply chain issue. There are only so many chips in the world.”
It hasn’t been formally confirmed, but murmurs at the Commercial UAV Expo suggest that the announcement would officially come soon — and before the Sept. 16 deadline.
The Drone Girl has reached out to the FAA for further comment, and will update this site.
ANRA launches Mission Manager X for fleet management
ANRA has been one of the key players in the space of building UAS Traffic Management management software, as well as other mission planning software such as its SmartSkies Delivery software which is focused on delivery drones.
This week, it announced what it’s billing as its “next-generation fleet operations and management platform for uncrewed aircraft.” Called Mission Manager X, it integrates its existing Mission, Fleet and UAS Traffic Management (UTM) services and technologies into a singular solution focused on enterprise drone operators seeking everything from pre-flight planning to post-flight analytics. Among its key features include:
- Displaying multiple map layers that depict authoritative aeronautical data, NOTAMs, weather, geozones, surveillance and more
- Providing live video streaming from (potentially multiple) onboard drone cameras
- Geofencing and dynamic airspace restrictions for collision mitigation and avoidance
- Detect and Avoid (DAA) systems with aircraft track information and integrated surveillance services such as radar, ADS-B, FLARM and C-UAS sensors, Broadcast and Network Remote ID capabilities
- FAA-certified Low Altitude Authorization Notification Capability (LAANC).
- Third-party integrations with services such as IBM’s Maximo and ArcGIS.
The software is hardware agnostic, meaning it’s compatible with most types of hardware including drone-in-a-box tech such as OmniDock and DJI Dock.
ANRA’s Mission Manager X software launched on September 5 and is already available for use.
Autel shows off A-Mesh technology
While Autel didn’t drop much of anything new, it did offer hands-on chances to see its drones including the latest EVO Max Series, Dragonfish Series, EVO II V3 Series and Autel Alpha.
Perhaps the most standout for folks who have been closely following the company was when Autel offered a first-hand look at what it’s billing as first-of-its-kind A-Mesh technology. That tech is not ulike what it sounds like — it’s mesh technology based on the Bluetooth technology architecture. With it comes greater communication range, flexibility and reliability. Autel says this is the first mesh network technology in the drone industry.
So whats next for Commercial UAV Expo 2023? For that, you’ll have to look to 2024. The same folks who put on Commercial UAV Expo will be hosting a spin-off event called Geo Week from February 11-13 in Denver, Colorado.
Podcasting palooza
Friend of The Drone Girl, Dawn Zoldi, is a podcasting machine. And she kept up her streak this week too, recording for all sorts of shows, including her personal show, Dawn of Drones. That also included an episode for Full Crew, which she launched in 2022 alongside former Interdrone podcast host Mike Pehel. Full Crew airs weekly, and focuses on drones, as well as other aspects of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and robotics.
Listen to the replay of Zoldi’s live episodes from CUAV Expo on her YouTube channel. They’re also available for download on most standard podcast distribution networks.
Did you go to Commercial UAV Expo 2023? If so, what was your favorite part? Share your best highlights and learnings below!
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