I got the opportunity to visit the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas this year to walk the show and see what new technology was being marketing in the urban air mobility (flying taxi) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/drone market. I thought I would summarize some of the things I saw for those that didn’t get a chance to attend the show. The CES show is one of the largest trade shows in the USA and I just did a fly-in/fly-out the same day because hotel rooms are crazy expensive during this week. I arrived at 9:00 am and flew out at 9:30 pm and this allowed me enough time to walk the key areas of Westgate Lakes, Las Vegas Convention Center and Sands Expo Center. If you purchase tickets early, they are only $100 for attendees and it is a trade event so they do review your application and have to approve before sending you your credentials.
Here is a selfie in front of the Bell Nexus display. I will show more about this display later. I started at the North (Westgate) which had lots of smart city technology including several LiDAR companies. I have detailed these below:
LiDAR
Ouster-LiDAR (San Francisco, CA-USA): https://ouster.com/
They have a wide range of LiDAR which includes OSO-ultra wide view, OS1-mid range, and OS2-long range. They won a CES Innovation award for their OS2-128 long range LiDAR and are focused on transportation and drone opportunities.
SureStar – LiDAR (China): https://www.isurestar.com/en/
They also offer navigation and mapping LiDAR systems and even had a multicopter with a LiDAR sensor.
Livox – LiDAR (China): https://www.livoxtech.com
Livox Technology Company Limited is a DJI company that was founded in 2016 through DJI’s Open Innovation Program. Their big driver is low cost LiDAR systems for vehicles and mapping.
Polyexplore – LiDAR application solutions (San Jose, CA – USA): https://www.polyexplore.com/
They have a unique product that works with LiDAR and a camera system to give a more accurate picture of the area being mapped. The POLYSCANNER is a flexible, highly integrated Aerial HD mapping system which includes LiDAR, HD CAMERA, and GNSS/INS sensors.
Quanergy – LiDAR (Sunnyvale, CA – USA): https://quanergy.com/
Quanergy is focused on small solid state LiDAR solutions for navigation and mapping.
Velodyne LiDar (San Jose, CA – USA): https://velodynelidar.com/
One of the leaders in LiDAR just launched a very small LiDAR at the show called Velabit.
Urban Air Mobility-Flying Taxi
Bell Helicopter (Fort Worth, TX – USA): https://www.bellflight.com/
Bell had their Nexus UAM on display and even a small city with a hobby model of the Nexus flying between buildings. I have seen this aircraft at the Heli-Expo and Xponential in 2019. Very impressive. They didn’t have their full size APT (Autonomous Pod Transport) drone on display (just a small model in the city display). The APT is Bell’s delivery drone.
UBER/Hyundair (USA/Korea): https://www.uber.com/
Uber Technologies and Hyundai are working together on an Urban Air Mobility vehicle first displayed at CES2020.
ASKA – Flying Car (Mountain View, CA): https://www.askafly.com/
ASKA had a small booth in the Israel pavilion in the Sands Expo. They are located in Mountain View, CA but also have a facility in Israel. They are developing a personal flying vehicle that can drive and fly. They didn’t have a vehicle on display so I have added a picture from the internet.
DRONES
XDynamics (USA/Hong Kong/Japan/China): https://www.xdynamics.com/
XDynamics makes high end consumer/commercial drones that compete with DJI. They had several products on display.
Sinochip – Ag spray drone (China): http://sinochip.cn/enindex.html
Sinochip had several agricultural spraying drones on display.
Zero Zero Robotics (China): https://zerozerorobotics.com/
They have the V-Coptr Falcon drone that is more of a high end consumer drone. 50 min flight time and is a v-shaped bi-copter. 3-axis gimbal and 4k video camera. My picture from the booth wasn’t that great so I also included a picture from their website.
Autel Robotics – (Bothel, WA – USA): https://auteldrones.com/
Autel Robotics is a strong DJI competitor offering advanced consumer and commercial drones. They had a nice flight display showing the output of their IR camera on a TV screen.
Doosan drones – (China): http://www.doosanmobility.com/en/#tech
Doosan is a large heavy equipment company but they are also producing hydrogen powered drones. I have seen these before at the Commercial UAV Expo in Vegas.
DJI (China): https://www.dji.com/
DJI had a nice sized booth promoting their Inspire 2; Zenmuse X7; Ronin 2; Ronin-S; Ronin-SC; Master Wheels; Force Pro. I love the Inspire mini and think I need to buy one.
PowerVision (China): https://www.powervision.me/en/
PowerVision has a suite of underwater drones and flying drones, including ones that are waterproof. I took a video of their booth to show the drone being sprayed with water. These are the guys who also do the PowerEgg drone.
Robotic Research (Clarksburg, MD): https://www.roboticresearch.com/defense/solutions/pegasus/
These guys have a really innovative drone called Pegasus that flies and also has a track system allowing it to drive on the ground. The show unit was also equipped with the Velodyne Velabit small LiDAR sensor.
Sunflower Labs (San Francisco, CA – USA): https://www.sunflower-labs.com/
These guys have a unique home security drone that is stationed in a pod and they have remote sensors that when activated, allow the drone to provide surveillance of the area. Pretty interesting. My picture from the show wasn’t that great so I added a picture of the system from their website.
UAVLAS – Landing assistance systems (Warsaw, Poland): http://www.uavlas.com/
FLIR – Drones and IR technology (Various locations in the USA): https://www.flir.com/
FLIR had their R80D SkyRaider drone on display and a new FLIR MUVE C360 multi-gas detector sensor for first responders.
GoPro – Cameras (USA): https://gopro.com/en/us/shop/cameras
GoPro had a very large booth promoting their camera’s like the Hero 8 Black and the Max. They also had a cool scuba display showing.
Insta360 – (Not sure whey they are located): https://www.insta360.com/
Nice suite of cameras obviously providing an option to GoPro.
And the FAA even had a booth: https://www.faa.gov/
I am glad I did walk the show. Very interesting especially looking at the auto and television technology (not to mention the flying cars and drones of course). There are better shows though that highlight the aerospace tech better so I probably won’t attend CES next year but maybe go every few years.
UAV Propulsion Tech is unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hardware solution provider of propulsion, servo, autopilot, rescue/recovery parachutes, electric turbofans, pneumatic launchers, fuel flow/level sensors, hyperspectral cameras, INS, digital compasses, fuel cells, motors/generators, GCS and gyro-stabilized EO/IR gimbal solutions. Click on the HOME link above or go to www.uavpropulsiontech.com for more info.
