14 Apr 15. AUVSI Hosts Largest International Unmanned Systems and Robotics trade show and Expo in May 4-7 in Atlanta www.auvsishow.org. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) will host Unmanned Systems 2015, which will run from May 4-7 at the Georgia World Congress Center Atlanta. Credentialed members of the press may register for complimentary access to all events. With 8,000 attendees from around the world, Unmanned Systems 2015 is the largest expo and trade show in the industry. The event will include three days of interactive exhibits and exciting demonstrations of air and ground vehicles spread throughout 350,000 square feet of exhibit space. The 150-plus educational sessions, workshops, and panel presentations will focus on the future of commercial, humanitarian, environmental, governmental, and military applications for robotics and unmanned systems. For more information on these exciting sessions please visit AUVSI’s Program Planner. This year’s conference will feature keynote addresses and panel discussions by:
* Colin Guinn, chief robotics officer, 3D Robotics
* Dave Vos, project lead — Project Wing @ GoogleX
* David Vigilante, senior vice president, legal, CNN
* Helen Greiner, CEO, CyPhy Works
* Hugh Herr, MIT professor and head of biomechatroinics at the MIT Media Lab
* Rep. Frank Lobiondo, New Jersey House of Representatives
* Dr. Henrik I. Christensen, Distinguished Professor, KUKA Chair of Robotics, and Director of the Robotics & Intelligent Machines Center, Georgia Tech
15 Apr 15. Chinese drone-maker seeks funding at $10bn valuation. DJI, the Chinese maker of remote-controlled “quadcopters” that has led a boom in consumer drones, is looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in venture funding at a valuation of $10bn, according to people close to the negotiations. Its Phantom range of camera-bearing drones has become the market leader thanks to hundreds of videos on social networking sites such as YouTube showing off their high-definition aerial photographs. The Shenzhen-based company also hit the headlines in January when an unmanned Phantom drone crashed into the White House grounds. DJI declined to comment on the fundraising, which was first reported by Forbes. The talks with several Silicon Valley venture capital firms mark out DJI as the latest young private Chinese tech company to potentially achieve a sky-high valuation, after smartphone maker Xiaomi’s $45bn round in December saw its price tag leap from $10bn in August 2013. Xiaomi’s valuation made it the highest for a venture capital-funded start-up, beating runner up Uber, the San Francisco-based car hire app, valued at $41bn. The soaring valuations are being buoyed by optimism about the potential of China’s market, which, with the lowest internet penetration of any major market in the world, has room for growth. Thanks to a run-up for the Chinese tech sector more broadly since the start of 2014, three of the country’s largest internet groups — Alibaba, Tencent, and search engine Baidu — are in the top 10 largest internet companies in the world, alongside Amazon, Facebook, Google, and eBay. DJI’s funding talks come as aviation regulators around the world weigh the risks and opportunities of permitting commercial use of drones, whether for aerial photography, farming or other industrial uses. In the US, the Federal Aviation Authority in February proposed new rules to allow small unmanned aircraft, weighing less than 55 pounds, to be used for “non-recreational purposes”, as long as they are operated within line of sight of an operator and at a maximum altitude of 500 feet. The FAA also recently gave the go-ahead for Amazon to test deliveries via drone. — something that Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba is also experimenting with at home. (Source: FT.com)
15 Apr 15. US Navy to Deploy Underwater Drones by the End of 2015.
The U.S. Navy will for the first time deploy Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) from