The AUVSI New England chapter hosted its landmark Robotica UAS Summit on November 20, 2019 in Burlington Massachusetts.
The theme was an apt “Leadership Driving Operational Ecosystem Opportunities“.
It was a sellout event and had over 150 senior leaders and speakers helping to drive the industry forward. attendees plus many exhibiting companies. There was also a pitch fest that allowed audience members to have an opportunity to share what they were working on in a 3 minute pitch. This was a resounding success having 15 pitches and facilitating a riveting networking reception.
The event venue was the brand new facility at Northeastern University’s Burlington Campus. The facility hosts a very large net for safe flying of drones from the net into the large anechoic chamber. A fitting location for the UAS Summit.
 Active participation |  Anechoic chamber |
The event was focused on UAS entering the national airspace system. It consisted of 5 internationally renowned leaders (Brian Wynne, President & CEO, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), Troy Thomas, Partner and Associate Director, BCG, Lisa Wieland, Chief Executive Officer, Massachusetts Port Authority, Helen Greiner, HQE Robotics, Autonomy and AI, Department of the Army, Tim Bennett, Director, Air Domain Awareness, Department of Homeland Security) who presented their insights in riveting keynote presentations, and four panels.
The panel sessions were focused on: Public Operations, discussions included how drone data will be used by government; UAS Enablers, discussions about infrastructure scaling, UTM adoption, issues utilities face using drones in dangerous environments, and how these new vehicles co-exist in a multi-modal ecosystem; Counter-UAS systems, unearthed some of the threats and their civil mitigation approaches; and Urban Air Mobility that discussed what it will take to operationalize the vision of the Jetsons Flying Taxis). The members of the panels are pictured below.
 Public Operations |  UAS Enablers |
 Counter UAS |  Urban Air Mobility |
As described above there was a pitch fest that allowed audience members to have an opportunity to share what they were working on.
 Pitch Fest Members |  Audience participation |
We look for to your active participation at other Robotica events.
Details of the UAS Summit and other events are at the AUVSINewEngland.org website.
