 This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. Welcome this Friday to Pioneer Plaza, Think Tech Hawaii. This is Mike Elliott filling in for Ted Ralston, where the drone leads. Just wanted to Ted's out on another assignment, doing a lot of great stuff here for the state of Hawaii. And if some of you don't know, Ted is probably one of the hardest working people I know that I've met that has the betterment of this state deep in his heart, and he is continually working with regard to drone technology and how that can actually do a lot of great things here in the state of Hawaii. So thanks again, Ted, for all your hard work. Thanks for letting me host. Like I said, my name is Mike Elliott. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about Interdrone 2017. So we had about two weeks ago in Las Vegas, yeah, what happens there stays there, except I'm going to talk to you about Interdrone. So Interdrone is an international drone conference. And what it's turned out to be is a bit of technology with the aspect of the drones themselves, the sensors and systems, payloads, and then also a variety of track courses that they've offered over the past couple years in specialty particular areas of fire rescue, cinematography, mining and aggregates, mapping, and there are also a number of people there from different agencies from the FAA and others that you can talk with directly. And the keynote speaker on the opening was the FAA administrator himself. And one of the things that was very key in his discussion, drones are here to stay. He understands that. He understands that he has a mountain of effort to work through because the technology that is behind what's driving the UAS industry is moving at a pace faster than regulators can handle. And that's something that is a bit of a challenge, but he has asked us to continue to press on. And what he's seeing, too, is that issues being addressed of safety, redundancy, and the hard work by a number of people that have been part 107 qualified for just over a year now is beginning to prove to people that this is a safe industry for commercial operations and that it's actually doing a lot of good. There were a number of great lectures given by folks that summarized some of the work that they have been doing over the past couple of years, and then sharing that with a number of other people there, too. So I wanted to start with a few videos of just some of the items that were there. There are too many to name, but if you go to interdrone.com, you can actually look at all the vendors that were there. And there'll be an Interdrone 2017 summary video, I think, up on YouTube here pretty soon from Interdrone themselves. So if you want to go ahead and cue the first video, and we'll just talk a little bit over that. So Prodrone, this particular company is actually from Japan. And some of you might recognize this particular drone with its grappling arms. You might have saw it on Facebook or something and thought, ah, that's not real. Well, it is. The founding of this company was out of the heartbreak of the tsunami in Japan a few years ago on Earthquake. And how do we rescue people, and how do we get things to people when they're in most in need? And they're even actually working on a drone that is a personal rescue drone, basically. You would, in case of a tsunami, you would go up to this drone, you would climb in and kind of strap in on the side. You fire this thing up, and it would lift and carry you away from the scene of the incident. You know, that type of tragedy sometimes drives technology, or ideas for technology. So Prodrone, one of the companies that was there that was, it's very impressive, made in Japan, and a very impressive type of technologies that they were using with regard to this, and then some other drones that they're also manufacturing and looking to bring to market here in the very near future. So you're going to up and away, release. So you have multi-axis arms and stuff, so it can basically operate and manipulate, very similar to the human hand and human arm. Another example, just being able to carry, you know, a float out to somebody as an acting as an instant lifeguard. But one of the biggest things, like I said, for them was being able to carry stuff to another people that were in distress. So, you know, the type of technology that you're seeing mature is also working on issues of redundancy and safety. One of the hot items that was there this year, too, were some issues with dealing with parachutes. Previously some of the parachute systems you had seen on the market were, I guess, not of the greatest quality. And there were issues of how these things were going to work and not get caught up in rotors and stuff like that. Well, there are companies like ParaZero and a few others that are actually addressing this with very smart systems that operate completely independent of the drone itself and determine when there's loss of power or that there's an unstable attitude that the drone is actually taking and can instantly deploy parachute and bring a drone back safely to the ground. So, a couple things. If you're applying for a waiver to fly over people potentially, parachute systems are pretty much going to be a must from what some of the FAA personnel were talking about. And then also just recovery of your payload, your drone and payload system itself. As some of these systems become more and more expensive, I mean, you could be putting anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000 in the air. You'd like to get it back. And it can address issues of insurance rates, too. So it's something that is to look at here in the very new future. But ParaZero was one of the ones that we kind of thought was a hot item there this year. They had some stuff from Intel, too. Intel's been working on some technology with their real-sense technology. And they demonstrated that in a drone. They had this Typhoon H that had this real-sense technology sensor, first generation. And what it would do is, instead of just being an obstacle avoidance sensor, would actually remember the environment that it had flown past. So as it went past something and say the drone was backing up or moving sideways, it would remember how far a wall was or a tree or an obstacle that was in the way. And it wouldn't move any further. So it actually kind of builds a bit of a memory of the environment that it operates in. So they're working on the next gen for that. And they're introducing that into their Falcon A plus drone for survey type work, industrial inspection, and mapping type work that they're going to be introducing. So you see companies like Intel even getting into the drone industry. NVIDIA is another one that was there that had a really interesting presentation. You think NVIDIA, you're thinking gaming type systems or video cards, and that's what NVIDIA does. Well, they're actually working on and had demonstrated a system that allows a drone to actually follow a trail, completely autonomous, and look for a person at the end of the trail. And the drone didn't have any external input at all. The nearest operator was, I think they said, was about two miles away. And the only person that was with the drone was actually the videographer that was doing the video. So if you want to check that out from NVIDIA, but it's basically a self-awareness sensor. So it knows what its environment is. It knows how to make smart decisions to maneuver. And it can actually get into some pretty remote places. So these types of technologies are actually starting to come into their own, as well as some of the redundancy you're seeing in a lot of GPS systems, flight controllers, that allow these systems to become much, much more safer than previous generations have. So if we want to kick over to our next video, and we'll go into that, that'll be the, let's go to the propeller. Or let's see, let's do, so what we have with propeller is the ability to simplify some of the drone work. You're actually going to get out and do mapping, or say you're doing aggregate surveying and volume metrics in an area. You can actually quickly upload this information, make it shareable between a lot of different people, take tons of different measurements. You need to do a quick smart volume. Hey, how big is that pile? Are we producing what we need for the following week? Do I have enough on hand? How much do we sell? And you can actually do some quick calculations from a lot of the software. So propeller is one of those ones that's kind of on the leading edge on some of this work, and they're constantly updating their software solutions. And they have simple tools that allow anybody, with just a few minutes of practice or just a little bit of assistance, able to figure this out. And like I said, it's a collaborative tool. So you're seeing drones that are actually collecting information, but then also providing this collaborative output. The big question this year also was, so what do I do with the data? Drones collect a lot of data. And you have to put it in a usable format so that people can use it, understand it, and make good decisions based on what they actually collected. It's not just pretty pictures and video. So in that particular case, you know approximately how much materials would have to be removed. You could plan for that. You could actually have a bit of a plan to when am I going to move it, how many dump trucks, who am I going to schedule to take care of this. Also some of the topographic models that are available now have gotten a lot more accurate. So pretty cool stuff. And we're seeing a lot of software solutions being made available to the end users. And that's going to be where the next battle is. So drones are one aspect of it. But where the software is handled, processed, managed, distributed, and then what's done with it. So software developers, you still have an upper hand in this industry. If you want to get involved, there's so much that still needs to be done. And we're seeing some of the packages like Intel was putting together that actually had a software solution, their drone. Just everything kind of merged together into one so that there was one one-stop shop for everything. And you do see some other companies kind of doing some of that same type of work. So we're going to move on. And we're going to show you a new player in the drone market and stuff, which is Power Vision with their Power Eye and their Power Ray and also the egg. So the Power Eye is basically would be an on-par competitor with the Inspire series with its Micro Four Thirds camera system. But a little bit different design where it's actually able to be folded. The lenses, it's Micro Four Thirds. So you can interchangeable lenses that you can use. But one of the things that's a little bit different on this one, too, is the portability factor. This one actually folds up quite a bit and is able to give you on-par some of that same quality that folks have been used to with the Inspire series. So different companies looking and approaching the problem how to put these drones together, how to make them portable, provide some of the sensors in long flight time and endurance, that fight, that battle that keeps taking place actually benefits the consumer at the end of the day. They get to make the choice. So I just recommend you kind of check these guys out. They also, like I said, you can put a variety of lenses on there since it's a Micro Four Thirds camera. And they also have a few other cameras that are coming here in the near future for this. You can check them out if you want. But another cool design, new on the market, and it's kind of interesting to see some, their Power Egg design, which is another one that's kind of cool too. You can check that out. So we'll wrap this one up on the Power Eye. Yeah, there we go. And then on the, so through the days that we were there at Intertron, like I said, there were a number of different conferences. Some of the most interesting were the ones dealing with fire rescue, search and rescue related, how some of the public safety agencies are actually incorporating drones into their workflow. And believe it or not, these are becoming very much commonplace. They're aiding tremendously in search and rescue efforts throughout the country. They provide a low cost solution that allows people to at various small departments to actually get out there and put something in the air and find maybe somebody who's lost, help in establishing boundaries on a particular fire or emergency, FLIR camera systems, which have been very useful and have come into their own pretty much in different drones that are available. And that commonplace and recurrence of use has actually created a new trust in a lot of communities where they see how useful that these have become. And we look at it too as if you save one life, it's all worthwhile. So public policy is coming along, acceptance is coming along, and the rules and regulations that the FAA has set forth are a good cornerstone for everyone to follow. And we're starting to see people beginning to understand that where the FAA is the regulator for UAS systems and that we should default to the guidelines that the FAA has been setting and it's actually working out very well. And I think, do we have one more video? Oh, okay, yeah, we're just doing the three this time. So agriculture, we got some things coming up. We'll be talking a little bit more here about the UAS summit that was held up in Alaska, George Purdy, and Ted Ralston were up there for that particular week up in Fairbanks, Alaska, and George went straight from Las Vegas to Alaska and back here to Hawaii. And yeah, from blazing hot to freezing cold to just right. And the reason that they were up there was talking with the regard to the PAM Pacific Test Range. There were a number of lectures that were given with regard to the test events that are taking place, not just in Alaska, but future test events that are gonna hopefully occur here in Hawaii, but then also some of the other test sites and what they've been doing and what works, best practices, and what you're seeing is to the future of that. So in a future episode, we're gonna have probably Ted and George to give a good overall summary of some of the stuff that they were able to talk about while they were up there in Alaska, in Fairbanks. And we're gonna head off to a short little break and we'll come up and recap for the day and look forward to seeing you guys out in the field. Bye. This is Think Tech Hawaii, Raising Public Awareness. It's crazy, we're all so caught up in the confusion. Nothing is making sense. Fusions, how to make a party. A sign had designated driver. Hey, welcome back to Think Tech Hawaii, where the drone leads us, Mike Elliott, filling in for Ted Rolston this week, down here at Pioneer Plaza. Ted's off on another secret mission and he'll be back next week. Just wanted to, like I said, wrap a little bit about tying what Interdrone was about. And it's an international drone conference. One of the things that was really amazing too was seeing a board that had a map of the world and they asked people to put their business cards all over. And yeah, there were plenty from the United States, but there were folks from around the world that were there and truly an international event. Another great event that they had for Interdrone, the third year in a row, was their women's luncheon that they had done. Women's, you know, Interdrone luncheon that they had had. And this is one of the areas that, you know, working hard to see some change, hopefully see some change. This is a career opportunity, I think, for folks that are coming up and, you know, looking to a possible career. It's not necessarily always about flying the drone. It's not necessarily about being, you know, camera operator or sensor operator. But, you know, the industry itself is actually looking for and needing a wide variety of people. And I think the type of technology and the discussions that were had during Interdrone show you again and again how this is very much a gender-neutral technology, a gender-neutral career field. We need software programmers. We need folks doing apps. You know, we need, yeah, we need drone pilots. We need technicians that can fix and maintain these things. There's a wide number of fields that I think are available to just about anyone. You're also starting to see with some of the schools that were there, we talked to a few folks that, you know, there are universities that have developed entire drone curriculum. So somebody could come in as a freshman in college, finish their four-year degree, do a grad school degree and specialize maybe in drone engineering and actually build and design or software and app development for a particular process maybe that is needed, you know, for a drone or doing particular research. University of Hawaii is working on that also and they actually have folks out doing research and using drones to capture data on a recurrent basis and because there are low-cost means by which to sometimes collect complex data. One of the things that we've seen a lot of work being done here locally that kind of translates is some of the reef survey work that in trying to address overall coral reef health and how is that affected by global warming? What are the stressors on the coral reef systems? It's kind of hard to rent a helicopter or a plane and go fly over those coral reefs at low enough altitude to collect high-resolution photos on a recurrent basis, but a drone is actually kind of the perfect platform for that type of research. So grad students are able to get out there and do some really critical research that may lead to new mitigation measures to help protect coral reefs here in Hawaii. Some of the things that are coming out with regard to their test site operations on the island of Lanai, we're looking forward to hopefully conducting a few operations in the near future and getting that up and running. George Purdy has done an incredible job with the community there in getting just a tremendous amount of support and securing what is necessary for those initial operations. And after touring some of those areas out on Lanai with him, just seeing what a perfect area that is to actually be able to operate. Some of the types of things that the industry is looking for that is in the very near future, there's a degree of autonomy in drone operations. I talked to you earlier about the NVIDIA software that basically was able to allow a drone to sense its environment and make smart decisions to go where it needed to go. Also beyond visual line of sight type technology. This is really where I think the immediate drone industry is gonna go. But to be able to go beyond line of sight, a couple of things have to happen. The drone has to obviously have some degree of intelligence as to its environment. It also needs to be aware of the air space that it's in and air traffic and it has to be able to take appropriate avoidance measures if necessary. So that type of testing and having a test site location where you can set up different test criteria, practice those with different types of systems, see what works, see what doesn't, and then tying that back into the university and some of the research that folks are doing and bringing students along into this and then having them graduate out into a potential career to fully develop this technology with some of the drone companies that are out there. It really looks for us to be an amazing opportunity and we're looking forward to seeing some of those action activities in the near future and we'll definitely bring you some great stories from that once we have that kickoff here, hopefully, maybe later this year or early next year. We'll have to talk with George and Ted and see where some of that's gonna be had. If at any time, you know, I have any questions for myself, you can get in touch with us here at Think Tech. You got the number on the screen, 808-374-2014. You can give us a call. Normally we have the Twitter feed up and stuff and some folks are tweeting in also, but if you wanna have any quick call or any questions, be glad to help answer those. All right, well, we'll just once again wrap up. Thanks again for letting me host here, Ted, today. Just give you a quick wrap up for Interdrone 2017. If you have any questions, you can contact me at our business at Drone Services Hawaii. We'd be glad to help answer any of your questions and look forward to hosting again and being a guest here with Ted sometime talking about where the drone leads. Thank you very much and aloha.