The drone industry moves fast, and it’s not easy to keep up with the new products and services, and that are regularly hitting the marketplace.

To help drone professionals stay on top of new advances, Commercial UAV Expo offers two Exhibitor Showcase Presentations. For 2024, Expo attendees had the chance to hear from representatives from 24 companies and organizations. Presentations discussed new hardware, software enhancements, tools for improving data collection and safety, business services, and much more.

Below is the first installment of our recap of the Exhibitor Showcase Presentations. Watch for two additional recaps over the next two days. 

Angel Aerial Systems

With CEO Will Hasting giving the presentation, Angel Aerial Systems introduced the audience to their flagship drone, the Trio. He explained how there are drawbacks with just about every option for public safety officials who want to monitor an area – between expenses for crewed helicopters to low hover time for quadcopter UAVs – but with the Trio offering a viable alternative. Using what he described as a new windmill airframe, the drone has three wings with rotors on each end. The result is a UAV that is able to hover three to six times longer than the typical quadcopter, complete with a payload collecting thermal and RGB video. Currently, the Trio is a prototype, with the company anticipating a beta release in the first half of 2025 and a full launch in the back half of next year.

AVSS

Focused on enabling operations over people, Canada-based AVSS's offers compliant drone parachute recovery systems and flight termination systems. During their presentation, company representatives explained how the company offers services beyond parachutes to include assistance with compliance with relevant regulations, so drone fleets can perform more predictably and engage in more complex missions.

Oregon UAS Accelerator

With visions of helping usher in the next generation of innovative UAV companies, Joseph Wyno, Executive Director with Oregon UAS Accelerator presented about his organization’s program to help burgeoning companies enter the marketplace. He explained to the audience that they serve as a “hub” for companies in the seed funding to Series A range, providing them the education and tools they need to bring their visions to life. They accept cohorts of seven and are currently accepting applications.

RIEGL USA Inc.

An internationally known leader in providing imaging technology in airborne, mobile, terrestrial, industrial and unmanned laser scanning solutions for applications in surveying, RIEGL USA Inc. presented a review of their imaging product line at the Exhibitor Showcase Presentations. Company representative My-Ling Truong described various offerings including its ULS line, its RiACQUIRE embedded web interface, and its Topo-bathymetric surveying solutions.

ViVUM AI

Artificial intelligence is the biggest driver for companies in all industries today, though much of that focus is on generative AI applications like ChatGPT. In this presentation, ViVUM AI Vice President of Commercial Sales & Business Development C.J. Meurell explained that his company is taking AI to the next level. He explained the differences between the AI we’re seeing today and what he referred to as “dynamic AI,” the latter of which involves a neural learning model that evolves and can make decisions on the fly without the training required for other models. In his words, this provides true autonomy, and can be applied to a machine – including UAVs – using just a standard FPGA. The company has been working with the United States military, and is now expanding into more commercial applications.

Freefly Systems

A maker of drones, gimbals, cameras, lidar systems, and more, Freefly Systems told Expo attendees about their new Astro Prime drone. A smaller platform than their previous model, the Astro Prime features a Pilot Pro controller, a 61mp Sony camera, new batteries and sensors, and other advanced features. In addition, Freefly explained to the audience that it had made upgrades to its Alta X drone. Upgrades include integration with the Pilot Pro controller, skid landing gear, payload rails, and standard Remote ID capability to ensure compliance with federal regulations.

Stitch3D

Founder and CEO of Stitch3D Clark Yuan gave their company’s presentations, showcasing with a video demonstration the company’s software that makes it much simpler to share and manage 3D data. While services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and others make that process relatively simple for images and text, the process of sharing 3D point cloud data with stakeholders can be extremely cumbersome and overly complicated. To get around that, Stitch3D created a web-based tool that, as Yuan explains it, contains three prongs: data storage, a media player, and data processing, all with a simple user interface reminiscent of the aforementioned Dropbox.

Hextronics

Curtis Lary from Hextronics described the drone-in-a-box offerings from his Miami-based firm, Hextronics. The company’s Universal nesting solution boasts more than 10 configurations, meaning it can work with multiple drone platforms, along with 80-second battery setup. Their larger Atlas drone-in-a-box is a 420-pound unit is configured to work with more than 20 drone models. According to Larry, the Atlas can charge drone batteries in 60 seconds, and it is ideal for inspection work and search and recovery operations.