Although Xponential is taking place in a virtual environment this year, that doesn’t mean that attendees won’t be able to have an interactive experience, thanks to the efforts of engineering consulting and contracting firm SKA Custom Robots and Machines. During the show, SKA, an exhibitor during this year’s Xponential, will demonstrate robotics being teleoperated. The demonstrations will feature Ultra-Light Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) being controlled and maneuvered around a makeshift obstacle course, offering attendees a third person perspective. On Thursday, Oct. 8, attendees will actually be able to take control of the UGVs and teleoperate the vehicles themselves from their own computers.

Sea Machines Robotics has partnered with shipbuilder Metal Shark Boats to supply the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)’s Research and Development Center (RDC) with a new Sharktech 29 Defiant vessel. Responsible for helping transition innovative technologies and providing premier analysis and decision support to enhance operational performance across all Coast Guard missions, the RDC will use the vessel to test and evaluate the capabilities of available autonomous vessel technology. Sea Machines SM300 autonomous-command and remote-helm control technology is integrated onto the vessel, providing the USCG with a full range of advanced capabilities, including transit autonomy, collaborative autonomy, collision avoidance and remote vessel monitoring.

From Sept. 16 to 17, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) conducted captive carry Sparrowhawk small UAS (sUAS) flight demonstrations. Designed as an airborne launch and recovery demonstrator aircraft tailored to fit GA-ASI platforms, the Sparrowhawk aircraft focuses on Advanced Battle Management System’s attritableONE technologies. To further airborne recovery of sUAS, Sparrowhawk iterates on the DARPA Gremlins Program, which reduces the cost of operation and enables new mission capabilities to GA-ASI’s MQ-9 Remotely Piloted Aircraft.

Skyward, a Verizon company, has been awarded a temporary waiver from the FAA that allows its pilots to fly the Percepto Sparrow drone from their homes to inspect critical communications infrastructure near the Big Hollow wildfire in Washington. The waiver permits operations 24 hours a day, with less than three miles of visibility, and no pilot or observer on site. “At a moment when we are facing dangerous consequences of climate change and coping with a global pandemic, maintaining the Verizon Network has never been more important,” says Rima Qureshi, chief strategy officer, Verizon.