Event organizers call the PX4 Developer Summit the “ONLY technical AND business conference on Open Source Drones—with content from the community for developers, and hardware engineers.” Scheduled for October 21 and 22 of this year in New Orleans, LA, the event brings together the world’s leading developers of PX4, one of the most commonly used operating ecosystems for drones in the world.

For commercial drone professionals, the event offers the chance to learn more about the ways open source drone technologies are advancing and making drone-based business operations more effective and efficient.

“Every year, PX4 developers come to present or introduce new features to the code or talk about cool projects or implementations that are coming out,” Ramón Roche, General Manager at the Dronecode Foundation, told Commercial UAV News. “Developers come to learn what's happening and also share what they've been doing and network with the rest of the developers.”

For businesses that use drone technology, the annual summit presents multiple opportunities to get up to date on PX4 development and forge business partnerships. "A lot of companies that come to the event end up building partnerships with other members of the PX4 ecosystem,” Roche explained. “The fact that they're all using open technologies and they can find ways to start working together makes this a really valuable event.” 

Now in its fifth year, the annual PX4 Developer Summit provides educational sessions and presentations, hands-on tutorials, technical lectures, and keynote addresses from industry leaders. The sessions are aimed at helping developers further their knowledge of technology, learn best practices, engage with colleagues from around the world, and discover the ways open source is changing the uncrewed vehicle industry.

Registration for this year’s summit began on April 12, and summit organizers are hard at work lining up speakers, sessions, and presentations. “We already have about 40 sessions scheduled, and our call for proposals is open right now,” Roche reported. “There will be a lot of workshop tutorials and learning-based session. The event is very, very focused on developer content.”

Still, Roche stated, the event will also highlight new product announcements. “You’ll see developer products, flight controllers, new sensors, and cutting-edge hardware,” he said.

Roche is excited that this year’s PX4 Developer Summit will take place immediately following the ROSCon robotics conference, also taking place in New Orleans. “They’re expecting about 1,000 robotics developers at ROSCon,” Roche stated. “It’s going to be a big week for robotics developers in New Orleans, and we're happy to be part of that movement. We hope these events help everyone in our business connect and build more projects together.”