Growth Opportunities for Computer Vision in Commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Dave Litwiller Aeryon Labs Inc.

Transcription

1 Growth Opportunities for Computer Vision in Commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Dave Litwiller Aeryon Labs Inc.

2 Overview The rise of the suas industry Market size, growth, and main applications Picking partners Vision technology drivers Immediate opportunities for imaging and vision Even larger mid-term growth for imaging and vision in suas

3 About Aeryon Labs Founded 2007 in Waterloo, Canada First shipments in breakthrough, used by BP to combat the Deepwater Horizon gulf oil spill Global market share and performance leader in professional VTOL suas Flight time, flight dynamics, gimbal-camera 100% y-o-y growth

4 Recent UAV History Year 2005 Year 2015 Runway scale Fixed wing Remotely piloted Large team operation $$$$ Time Backpack scale VTOL Robotic flight control Single person operation $$

5 Enabling suas Technologies Longer Term Moore s Law Small image sensors and optics Wireless communications Most Recently Monolithic GPS receivers Inertial MEMS sensors LiPo batteries

6 Commercial Business Catalysts suas vs. Manned Helicopter Five times cheaper per hour, fully loaded cost Safer and faster than ladders and ropes Greater ubiquity, speed, accuracy, repeatability, quality and flexibility in inspection and surveying Ability to put airborne imaging tools safely and widely in the hands of experts from outside of aviation

7 Applications Oil and gas refinery, flare stack, pipeline Power generation (solar, wind turbine), power distribution Transportation infrastructure airports, rail lines, roadways Building inspection, industrial facilities Photography and cinematography Agriculture

8 Global suas Market US$ million Sources: Teal Group, Frost & Sullivan, Dow Jones, and manufacturers securities filings

9 Selecting suas Partners Integrated R&D players Early leader path dependency VTOL opportunity >> fixed wing Business opportunity in small systems >> large UAVs

10 Selecting suas Partners Media footprint sustainable business model Precision agriculture caution, hardware pricing pressure More favorable regulatory environment outside of the US for now in commercial uses Dramatic industry expansion when US and Europe re-regulate commercial uses of suas

11 Current Opportunities for Imaging and Vision Industry Roughly 1/5 th of the merchant value of a suas is its imaging subsystem (visible, single sensor) Automation of imaging and computer vision in suas depends on capability in Natural and varying lighting Object occlusion and perspective changes Shadows from objects and surroundings Twilight and night imaging Aggregating contiguous discrete images User designated object tracking

12 Future Opportunities for Imaging and Vision Industry Integration of more sensory data than just visible and IR imaging, with corresponding expansion of pattern analysis and decision making Depth sensing (near field) Visual odometry Digital image stabilization Hyperspectral UV LiDAR Chemical sensors and spectrometers Microphones RFID readers

13 Future Opportunities for Imaging and Vision Industry Beyond Line of Sight operation (BLoS, a.k.a. BVLoS) Master work of suas: Far Field Sense & Avoid Source: Military & Aerospace Electronics

14 How Big an Opportunity? Consider results to date in France Effective date of onset for legal commercial operation of suas in April UAV sector revenue US$200M, 700 registered commercial operators at year end 2015 UAV sector revenue US$360M(F) * France is 1/5 th the size of the US, and 1/8 th of the EU * Sources: Xerfi, DGAC

15 Summary suas industry is hot and getting hotter, built upon a foundation of sustainable and growing value in many large industries The role for computer vision and imaging is already significant, and about to get much larger Pick partners wisely. Thinly substantiated hype is rife among some suas vendors and ecosystem players

16 suas: This is just the beginning

17 Further Information Dave Litwiller Vice President Aeryon Labs Inc. Waterloo, Ontario Canada Telephone: X322