At the Intersection
Second Annual Conference sponsored by the AUVSI Ridge & Valley Chapter and Virginia Tech
Report by James Chapman – October 2018
The conference was an outstanding gathering of leaders from the unmanned and autonomous systems industry hosted at Virginia Tech on October 9-10, 2018. The focus this year was on the challenges and opportunities at the intersections of fundamental areas. The intersection of human with machine. The intersection of sensing with control. The intersection of open architecture with secure software and communication. And, of course the ways these systems are intersecting with each of our lives.
Keynote speakers included: Pete Kunz, Chief Technologist for Boeing HorizonX and Boeing NeXt; Danette Allen, Senior Technologist for NASA Intelligent Flight Systems; and Tom Walker, Founder and CEO of DroneUp.
Major Themes
Domain safety and awareness, data integration and insights, “explainable artificial intelligence (x.AI) and advances in sensing and processing systems formed the core of the conference this year. Many excellent panel presentations addressed industry-wide concerns, including micro weather data/forecasting, augmented reality applications, and operating in unsafe environments. A fast-paced retrospective on how innovation in the air, land and sea systems industries has been shaped by the American legal system over the last century was both entertaining and insightful about what to expect for the future.
Pete Kunz kicked things off with a tantalizing view of Boeing’s work to develop a cargo drone capable of handling payloads up to 500 lbs. He described a challenging talent environment where the top technology-based companies are competing for the best and the brightest minds. Somewhat more secretively, he shared a cartoon video of an integrated aerial logistics and passenger transportation system. The bottom line for Boeing is how to unlock (and monetize) the value of time.
Danette Allen of NASA drilled into x.AI for the attendees during a packed lunch presentation, observing that applied artificial intelligence must establish a justifiable level of trust before it can be relied upon for decision making. Her dominant thesis was the need to develop a certification process to establish that trust.
Among the many intriguing panel presentations this year was one that explored the current state of autonomy in air and ground systems. Michael Fleming of TORC Robotics addressed the challenges of training level 4 and 5 autonomous vehicles to recognize and deal with “bad behaviors” of humans: pedestrians who dart into traffic and aggressive (or clueless) drivers. As Michael noted, level 3 autonomy for cars is actually quite dangerous because it can lull the human operator into a false sense of (autonomous) security.
Andy Lacher of MITRE Corporation offered his insights about whether levels of autonomy should be established for aviation in the same way they have for automotive. In a word: No! From Andy’s perspective, an aerial vehicle needs to be fully autonomous or not autonomous at all because “humans make horrible back-ups for automation.”
Tom Walker of DroneUp offered a sobering “lessons learned” presentation on the challenges of search and rescue operations in extreme environments. Tom recounted the company’s work to locate Susan Schmierer in the vicinity of Amboy Crater, an extinct volcano in California’s Mohave Desert, earlier this year. She had already been missing for over two weeks and wasn’t expected to be found alive – daily temperatures exceeded 120 degrees – and her remains never were located.
But the entire SAR community learned some important lessons for future drone use in such harsh conditions. Nearly 80 pilots from around the world volunteered their time and worked around the clock for several days. Images were crowd-reviewed remotely for anomalies warranting closer inspection by on-site personnel. Mission coordinators in Virginia (where DroneUp is headquartered) and in California monitored the mission chat 24/7. Because of the temperatures, operations could only be conducted during relatively cooler morning hours. Dozens of sites of interest were inspected in a closely-coordinated ground effort in the volcanic debris field. Perhaps the most important takeaway was avoiding the prospect of the rescuers themselves becoming victims when operating in such an inhospitable SAR environment.
Congratulations to Nanci Hardwick (Aeroprobe), Dr. John Provo (Virginia Tech Office of Economic Development), Dr. Craig Woolsey (VT Aerospace and Ocean Engineering), Andy Alden (VT Transportation Institute), Mark Blanks (Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership), Jon Greene (VT Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science), the AUVSI Ridge and Valley Chapter, and the many industry sponsors for another timely and thought-provoking conference.
These comments are those of the author, not AUVSI, Virginia Tech or any other sponsors of the conference.