Tomorrow is Today

Drone Manufacturers Look To Domestic Markets As Military Spending Slows

This year’s show is cast against a backdrop that is somewhat austere for the many, many robotics systems makers who exhibit here. Most of them do the majority of their businesses with governments around the world, many of which—like the United States—are facing huge cuts in military spending and a slowdown in the acquisition of new technologies.

But when the age of austerity closes a door, Congress every so often opens a window. The mandated integration of unmanned systems into the U.S. national airspace by 2015 has many makers of unmanned aerial systems looking to apply their technology to civilian skies, while unmanned ground vehicle makers are making inroads into spaces like telepresence, site security, ground-based infrastructure inspection, and cargo logistics.

(via The Coolest Warbots, Drones, and Unmanned Tech at the Robotic Systems Show | Popular Science)