What’s the outlook for the drone industry?

That’s the question we explore in my continuing series of interviews  with industry analysts, writers and editors.  In this series, I interview guests with diverse opinions and perspectives on the industry.  They provide a range of insights on some of the industry’s current topics and trends.  By the end of the series, you should have a good sense of where industry is going and how you can position yourself to take advantage.

Michael Blades is Vice President for Frost & Sullivan’s Aerospace, Defense, and Security America's Region. Frost & Sullivan is a business consulting firm involved in market research and analysis, growth strategy consulting and corporate training across multiple industries. Michael has been with Frost & Sullivan for over six years as a market analyst and growth consultant and has earned a Masters Degree in Aerospace Operations as well as an MBA. In this episode of the Drone Radio Show, Michael talks about some of the current trends shaping the industry and what to look forward to in 2020.

Where can you go to connect with the latest advancements in the drone industry?

Brian Wynne is president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of unmanned systems and robotics. AUVSI represents more than 7,500 members from more than 60 countries involved in the fields of government, industry and academia. AUVSI members work in the defense, civil and commercial markets. Before joining AUVSI in 2015, Brian served for 10 years as president and CEO of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, the trade association promoting battery, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell electric drive technologies and infrastructure.  Brian is a graduate of the University of Scranton and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cologne in Germany. He is also a general aviation pilot with a commercial certificate and has a Remote Pilots License. In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Brian talks about AUVSI, the upcoming Xponential 2020 and why we should attend and he tells us what to look for 2020 in the drone industry.

How Will We Manage Autonomous UAV Fleets?

Nitin Gupta is the Founder and CEO of FlytBase, a Silicon Valley startup that offers an enterprise drone automation platform to power large scale deployments of intelligent autonomous UAV fleets. The hardware-agnostic IoT platform features intelligent plugins at the edge, cloud-based real-time fleet management, and APIs for seamless integration with business workflows. FlytBase is working with a large number of enterprise customers spread across US and Europe, helping them deploy fully automated drone applications for public-safety/security, warehouses, and inspections.

Nitin has over 15 years of experience in the automation and aerial robotics industry. Before founding FlytBase, he worked with multiple startups and with Samsung electronics. He has extensive background in aerospace control systems, robotics and automation. In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Nitin talks about FlytBase, the challenges of building a system to manage autonomous fleets and he shares his thoughts on the future of the drone industry.

The Drone Industry in 2020

Lisa Murray is the event director for Diversified Communications, an international media company with more than 15 years’ experience in producing world-renowned events for precision measurement professionals.  If you’re in this field, then you have most likely have attended one of their events, including SPAR 3D Conference & Expo, the International Lidar Mapping Forum, the Commercial UAV Expo or Amsterdam Drone Week. Her experience with Diversified Communications gives her a unique vantage point on commercial drone industry, the companies making a difference and the people creating change.  In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Lisa talks about the Commercial UAV Expo and Amsterdam Drone Week, the global trends shaping these shows and the issues and opportunities driving the commercial drone sector.