[Page 4] Autonomous vehicles and UAVs hot topics at ROBOTICA 2016

Editor's note: This is page 4 of a 4-page article.

Schmitt then asked the panel about where, when, and in what form the first autonomous vehicle would be out and available in the public, and not just in testing. See each panelist’s summarized responses here:

Reimer: Singapore. It has the investment capability to do so, and they could remove all manually-driven cars off the road if they want. Fully autonomous vehicles in the US could be sometime within the next decade.

Koopman: Freight companies represent a strong possibility here. I wouldn’t put a time frame on it, but soon.

Serma: It’s hard to say. Could be two-three years, or seven-eight years. I’d say take a look at the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), where the potential to have 0.9 vehicles for every citizen is unfeasible. This technology could take off quickly in this countries with services such as Uber or Greyhound.

Ruel: Signapore, in 12-18 months. They’ve created an environment that allows this kind of exploration. From a policy standpoint, it’s very impressive and enabling. Fully autonomous vehicles will be on the road in the US this decade. Once the seal is broken, millions of vehicles will be on the road. (Ride sharing type cars first.)

Senatore:. My guess is somewhere on the public transportation side. Lot of testing already being done in Europe. Maybe in France. In terms of widespread in the US, not within a few years. But it will pop up in some areas, but in limited environments.

Marine robotics and conclusion

At the end of Wednesday afternoon, I sought to complete the "land, air, and sea" trifecta by sitting in on the “Start-up pitches” session in the marine robotics track, which was hosted by Justin Manley, President, Just Innovation

During this, new companies provided information on their technologies and products. These included tethered and non-tethered vision-guided robotics (Aquabotix Technology Corporation and Riptide Autonomous Solutions), a marine data services company (Autonomous Marine Systems), and a high-energy subsea aluminum water battery company (Open Water Power).

All in all, it was a day filled with incredibly informative sessions from industry experts, and ultimately, people much smarter than me. Anyone interested in robotics or unmanned systems, whether on the ground, in the sky, or underwater, should consider this event next year.

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Keynote | Protecting our skies | Intelligent and automated vehicles | Conclusion