Past BAM Forums

UAS/AV Path to Profitability

On June 23-24, 2021, AUVSI and SAE teamed up to host the inaugural Business of Automated Mobility Forum with a very clear purpose: helping companies that are building the future of mobility create an actionable roadmap to success.

All sessions were recorded and are available On-Demand until September 22, 2021! If you were registered for the event, revisit the great content by logging in to the virtual platform. If you'd like to get access, click below to get access directly from the SAE website.

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Learn more about the UAS/AV Path to Profitability

Event Scope

Keynotes & Panels

Technical Papers & Presentations

Sponsors


Event Scope

UAS/AV Path to Profitability

From drone delivery to driverless cars, automated mobility provides limitless opportunities and very real challenges. As you try to navigate the constantly changing market conditions, many events raise more questions than they provide answers. We worked to break that cycle with a focused look at the tactical decisions you can make now to get your business on the path to profitability.

Program

Our 2-day program was designed to help you define your business goals, plot your route to success, and avoid distractions so you can reach your destination in today's opportunity-rich environment. Our sessions provided expert insights and guidance on critical operational activities, including access to funding, navigating insurance & liability, certification standards for both air & on-road mobility, and interpreting market forecasts.

Participants

Attendees and speakers participated from across the automated mobility industry, along with experts in navigating standards and regulations. Connections were made with mobility execs, autonomy engineers, VCs, legal pros, and startup teams as the community came together to help make goals a reality and define the future of automated mobility.


Keynotes & Panels

The BAM Forum program was assembled to give participants actionable intel on how to keep their company — large or small — on track. Industry veterans and invested stakeholders met for discussions on how to manage challenges ranging from funding and IP protection to certification and consumer acceptance.

Day 1 — June 23 | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM (EDT)

Keynote | Vertical Motion

When considering the business of automated mobility, it’s impossible to ignore those companies and leaders that are making big waves in the market. One such company will tell their story of success from the perspectives of technological innovation, fiscal growth, and regulatory drivers.

Speaker:

  • Adam Bry, CEO & Co-founder, Skydio

Navigating the Shift Storm

Startups working on automated mobility - whether airborne or ground-based - are required to shift quickly and continuously, to adapt to new customer needs, to align with new testing data, and to keep technology ahead of the curve and the competition. This expert panel will explore how to maintain viability amidst the evolving challenges of funding, changing customer needs, and regulatory considerations in both the commercial and defense space.

Speakers:

  • Moderator: John Avery, Director, Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Michelle Chaka, Division Director, Data and Analytics, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
  • Jonathan Fentzke, Managing Director, Techstars Space Accelerator
  • Orin Hoffman, Venture Partner, The Engine
  • Jerome Rigaud, COO, Navya

A Capital Idea

Automated mobility is ripe for investment but understanding the right finance and capital options can feel daunting. Join this expert panel to explore the latest investment trends and find out how to get your business and technology on the path to profitability.

Speakers:

  • Reilly Brennan, General Partner, VC Trucking
  • Jeff Fuchsberg, Director, GeniusNY, The Tech Garden
  • Marco Rubin, Senior Investment Director, Center for Innovative Technology
  • Rumi Morales, Partner & Head of Venture, Outlier Ventures
  • Prachi Vakharia, Advisor, Safe AI

The Customer is Always Right – Understanding Consumer Expectations & Acceptance Concerning Data and Privacy

The mobility industry cannot underestimate the impact of customers’ expectations and understanding of new technologies, novel applications, and user experience. Experts will discuss best practices on the critical balance of privacy and service expectation, and the role of the consumer, data analytics, and regulations in maintaining this balance.

Speakers:

  • Moderator: Jennifer Dukarski, Shareholder, Butzel Long
  • Alexander Edwards, President, Strategic Vision Inc
  • Keri Grieman, Doctoral Candidate, The Alan Turing Institute
  • Claudia Rast, Shareholder, Butzel Long

Day 2 — June 24 | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM (EDT)

Keynote | Turning Hype Into Reality: The Challenges of Actually Operating On Roadways

New mobility is in transition, turning hype into reality by operationalizing models that involve cars, trucks, delivery, last mile, and innovations built from the ground up. Actually delivering on potential benefits requires ongoing attention to business models, policy and regulatory environments, confronting real-world operational challenges, and demonstrating the effectiveness of new technology to enhance safety, mobility, and sustainability. This will be a discussion of these challenges from a Zoox perspective, one company's journey to build innovations from the ground up.

Speaker:

  • Mark Rosekind, Ph.D., Chief Safety Innovation Officer, Zoox

Business Approach to Safety, Security, Liability & IP Protection

Failure in safety and security is not an option in the court of public opinion, and potentially the court of law Expert panelists provide guidance on how best to protect the public and yourself by proactively, rather than reactively, making safety and security top priorities and integral to a winning business model.

Speakers:

  • Moderator: Pascal Thalin, Aerospace Standards, SAE International
  • Patrick Lin, White House Presidential Innovation Fellow, Autonomous Systems
  • Tammy Reeve, FAA Designated Engineering Representative (DER), Patmos Engineering Services & Airworthiness Certification Services
  • Jennifer Richter, Lawyer, Akin Gump
  • Michael Robbins, Executive Vice President, Government and Public Affairs, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI)
  • Ed Skoch, Director & Co-Founder, Aldgate Insurance Services LLC

UAS Certification – The Final Frontier?

Achieving airworthiness certification is a key and critical step on the path to profitability. Interact directly with industry experts as they pull back the curtain on regulations, provide valuable insight into relevant standards and certification requirements, and offer advice and guidance on how best to navigate the regulatory landscape now and in the future.

Speakers:

  • Moderator: Parimal Kopardekar, Director, NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI)
  • John Bouma, Director of Civil Certification & ODA, Bell Flight
  • Dr. Steve Cook, Technical Fellow, Northrop Grumman
  • Jeff Immel, US Aviation Regulatory Counsel, Zipline
  • Jenn Player, Director of Regulatory Affairs, Skydio
  • Cliff Sweatte, Senior Policy Advisor, Akin Gump and former FAA ASI

Setting the Standard – Automated Ground Vehicle Standards

Standards are key to making transportation safe, secure, and affordable for the traveling public while not hindering innovation. Industry experts participating in the standardization efforts for automated mobility discuss these challenges while updating on latest activities.

Speakers:

  • Moderator: Jack Pokrzywa, Director of Ground Vehicle Standards, SAE
  • Robert Brown, Director of Public Affairs, TuSimple
  • Amy Chu, Director, AVSC, SAE ITC
  • Francesca Favaro, Safety Best Practices Specialist, Waymo
  • Karl Greb, Director for Safety Engineering, NVIDIA
  • Barb Wendling, Senior Researcher, Quantitative Scientific Solutions LLC

What’s on the Horizon?

While the future can be uncertain, recognizing trends can help businesses and leaders understand the opportunities and risks in various markets. Join a discussion highlighting trends in air and ground automated mobility, which could influence future investments.

Speakers:

  • Moderator: Michael Blades, VP, Aerospace, Defense & Security, Frost and Sullivan
  • Mike Jackson, Executive Director, Strategy and Research, OESA
  • Paul Lewis, Vice President of Policy and Finance, Eno Center for Transportation
  • Kevin Myhre, Patent Attorney, Intellectual Property Practice Group, Barley Snyder
  • Emily Shao, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company

Technical Presentations

In addition to live keynotes, panels, and networking, attendees also received access to on-demand technical oral presentations and papers. Technical content covered a range of topics including artificial intelligence + machine learning, unmanned aircraft systems, big data & data analytics, and ADAS + autonomous vehicle systems.

Many of the authors will host round-table discussions during the event, so be sure to review the Roundtable Schedule.

Technical Sessions

ADAS + Autonomous Vehicle Systems

Artificial Intelligence + Machine Learning

Big Data/Data Analytics

Unmanned Aircraft Systems

ADAS + Autonomous Vehicle Systems

Applying Rulebooks to Develop Safer Autonomous Vehicles

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Amitai Bin-Nun, Motional AD LLC

Autonomous Vehicle Safety Assessment with Fully Quantified ODDs

Technical Paper
Lead Author
Andrew Smart, Andrew Smart Consulting

CNB film heaters for ADAS provide even heating and low distortion enabling any-weather safe autonomous driving

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Mari Makkonen, Canatu

Full Simulation of an Autonomous EVTOL Including Sensing

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Tony Gioutsos, Siemens Corp

Low-Speed Autonomous Shuttles — Lessons Learned from Real-World Implementation

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Kevin Grove, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Safe Operations at Roadway Junctions – Design Principles from Automated Guideway Transit

Technical Paper
Lead Author
J. Sam Lott, Automated Mobility Services, LLC

State of the industry: Off-road autonomy

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Parag Batavia, Neya Systems LLC

Steps towards realizing enhanced mobility for persons who are blind, OR WHO have sight loss

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Lui Greco, CNIB

The Verification and Validation of Highly Automated Systems

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Tony Gioutsos, Siemens Corp

Artificial Intelligence + Machine Learning

The Benefits of Advanced 3D Lidar for Autonomous Mobile Robots

Technical Paper
Lead Author
Mircea Gradu, Velodyne LiDAR

Estimation of Gasoline Engine Emissions from Cylinder Pressure Parameters: Artificial Neural Network Approach

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Syed Abbas Ali, SECAB IET

Big Data/Data Analytics

A New Business Model for Aviation Weather Services for Greater Weather Resiliency in Operating Unmanned Systems

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Don Berchoff, TruWeather Solutions Inc.

Leveraging Fleetwide Digital Twin Technology to Facilitate Optimized Readiness and Mission Success

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Clayton Gardner, Systecon North America

Roadside Lidar Helping to Build Smart and Safe Transportation Infrastructure

Technical Paper
Lead Author
Jon Barad, Velodyne LiDAR

Unmanned Aircraft Systems

A Distributed Electric Propulsion Engine to Enable Profitable Super-STOL Operation

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Michael Johnson, SpyDar Sensors, Inc.

Hazards of In-flight Icing on Unmanned Aircraft

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Richard Hann, Norwegian University of Science and Tech

Improving UAV range and loiter time through aerodynamic design space exploration

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Durrell Rittenberg,

It Takes a Village: A Case Study of Business Development and Innovation in a UAS/AUS Ecosystem to Address Critical Industry Challenges

Technical Paper
Lead Author
Dr. Amy Whitney, UND Center for Innovation

Leveraging Predictive Manufacturing Techniques to De-risk and Accelerate Composite Design

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Peter Levesque, Victrex

Pulsar Factory: A Development Framework to Accelerate and Facilitate the Development of DO-178C Compliant Flight Controllers and Autopilots

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Valentin Brossard, Hionos

Solving the Detect and Avoid Problem for UAS

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Tom Furey, Sagetech Avionics

Supporting the development of autonomous urban air mobility vehicles with a digital twin

Technical Presentation
Lead Author
Yves C.J. Lemmens, Siemens Digital Industries Software

The Role of Safety Critical Architecture in an Evolving Ecosystem

Technical Paper
Lead Author
Andrew Carter, ResilienX Inc.


Sponsors

Sponsors leant their experience and expertise to this community to accelerate the growth of the UAS and AV industries. Their support enabled this event to take a new approach to education and collaboration — providing actionable insights and frank feedback on how to get innovative businesses on the path to profitability.

Our Sponsors

MSC Vires Virtual Test Drive (VTD) enables engineers developing the next generation of autonomous vehicles to easily create unlimited numbers of photorealistic driving environments, integrate artificial intelligence algorithms, LIDAR, radar, camera sensors and predict how they operate in realistic physics-based simulations. Adams Real Time goes one step further by enabling analysts to connect a highly accurate Adams vehicle dynamics model with a hardware controller for high fidelity off-line and online driving simulations with SIL (Software-in-the-loop) or HIL (Hardware-in-the-loop).

Perkins Coie is a leading international law firm that is known for providing high value, strategic solutions and extraordinary client service on matters vital to our clients’ success. With more than 1,200 lawyers in offices across the United States and Asia, we provide a full array of corporate, commercial litigation, intellectual property, and regulatory legal advice to a broad range of clients, including many of the world’s most innovative companies and industry leaders as well as public and not-for-profit organizations.

Skydio is the leading U.S. drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight. Skydio leverages breakthrough AI to create the world’s most intelligent flying machines for use by consumers, enterprises, and government customers. Founded in 2014, Skydio is made up of leading experts in AI, robotics, cameras, and electric vehicles from top companies, research labs, and universities from around the world. Skydio designs, assembles, and supports its products in the U.S.

SBG Systems

SBG Systems is a leading supplier of miniature, high performance and innovative motion sensing solutions. SBG Systems offers advanced inertial navigation systems (IMU, AHRS, INS, INS/GNSS) for driverless cars as well as unmanned systems whether they are land, aerial, or marine. Combined with cutting-edge calibration techniques and advanced embedded algorithms, SBG Systems products are miniature and low-cost solutions while maintaining a very high performance at every level. Our sensors are ideal for unmanned vehicle control, payload stabilization, and data georeferencing.

Velodyne is the first public pure-play lidar company and is known worldwide for its broad portfolio of breakthrough lidar technologies. Velodyne’s revolutionary sensor and software solutions provide flexibility, quality and performance to meet the needs of a wide range of industries, including autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), smart cities and security. Through continuous innovation, Velodyne strives to transform lives and communities by advancing safer mobility for all.

VTTI is dedicated to advancing safety through innovation. The institute collaborates with industry and government to develop, test, and deploy advanced vehicle technologies. A leader in conducting naturalistic driving studies, test-track evaluations, and on-road studies, VTTI has a history of providing real-world performance data for analytics, simulations, and analyses.