UAS News Podcast — 2013-06-19
Transcript
Alright, welcome to the next installment of the UAS News Podcast Series where we interview newsmakers and discuss the news and applications relevant to the global unmanned technologies community. I'm your program host, Patrick Egan. I'm flying solo today as Mr. Robinson has got something else going on.
Anyway, before we get started off today's show, podcast number 51 is titled Board Block. And what we're doing is we are interviewing some of the board of director candidates for AUBSI. And we are going to talk to them about their candidacy vision for the future and whatever else we did that last week and show 50 with Doug Davis. We'll carry on with that.
But before we get rolling, I want to talk a little bit more about the small unmanned systems business expo which is going on in San Francisco in on July 25 to 26 that SUS News is putting on, 3D Robotics. We've got some great sponsors, some great speakers, Ted McGeer, Chris Anderson, we have Ted Wairs-Banowski, myself, Gene Robinson. I would suggest you go over there which the website address is www.susbexpo.com. And if you're interested in coming, you should probably sign up now because the tickets are going fast.
It's going to be a hoot nanny for sure. We're even going to try and Skype in Gary Mortimer from South Africa. That ought to be pretty fun. So it looks like, Gene, did you make it?
Oh, yes, I did as a matter of fact. I'm going to have to get you an alarm clock. Running it close, I know. Oh, yeah, always a couple of them.
Now, you know, all right. Well, anyway, so we're just getting this deal rolling here. And I was talking about the SUSB expo, which we're over at the Golden Gate Club. And a lot of stuff is going on.
We've got a lot of people that want to sponsor MLB. We do have a couple more sponsors in the pipe. People are starting to get excited about the message of the show, the business message of the show. And people are ready to do some work.
I don't know. Maybe you've heard that out there and they're ready to make some money or just want to hang on and do some charity stuff. What's the word?
Yeah, I think that there's a lot of folks out there that are ready to go. And I think that there are probably more people than we know have already pulled the trigger on this deal. And, you know, we thought that there was going to be a flood earlier. I think there's going to be, you're going to see a lot more of this stuff in the news.
I think so, too. You know, I don't know, it is kind of a funny thing. I mean, sometimes we talk about the regulator kind of being in a little bit of denial, but then you have a whole end user group that's kind of, nobody really even knows what's going on. I read another news story this morning from this farm website and, you know, multi-rotors for farm use.
And this is the best sliced new thing from, you know, some sliced bread and you should buy one. And, you know, no mention of any regulatory body at all, which is okay, I guess. You know, it's not really our job, but I think it's kind of interesting. So, you know, you were on the road again last week.
So did you want to maybe, you know, summarize what that was like? It was a very interesting little conference that we went to up in Maryland. First off, it took me 30 hours to get from Texas to Maryland, which was another interesting little adventure. And but it was informative.
I got to meet and press flesh with a lot of the folks that we've talked to in the past, either from an official standpoint or unofficially. A lot of the FAA guys, a lot of industry folks up there. Of course, the FAA guys were kind of surprised to see me, but now that I'm actually legit and work in a government contract, it was appropriate for me to be there. You know, it was interesting.
There was one comment made that just surprised the heck out of me. It was Tim Madelman, who is a lawyer and apparently consulting to various agencies. And he made a comment about sticking your middle finger up to the FAA. And for those guys out there that are doing this now, that is the intention is that, you know, if you're flying now, you're sticking your middle finger up to the FAA.
And the veiled threat that came out of that is that, you know, when certification finally does roll around, we're going to remember you. And I looked around and I said, did that really come out of his mouth?
I'm too bad I wasn't there because I'd have probably jumped up and had a few comments for that. But that's kind of interesting that someone would utter that in public. I mean, you know, listen, you know, King of the Pariah is over here. I know people say stuff in private, but that's pretty interesting.
I'm sure that probably doesn't endear me to him. And maybe I misunderstood completely, which it was probably taken out of context and I'm wrong. But it was just in my opinion, it was quite the eye opener. And, you know, that's it.
It's just my opinion. But I did get to meet a lot of people out there that who really want to use the technology, fire, first responders, had a very impassioned plea from the Oklahoma Emergency Management Office and fire directors up there that they would have used the technology the same day that the tornadoes came through more. I thought that was a compelling thing. And one very quick note on the questions that were asked to the privacy panel, and I'll end it on this one, but I thought it was very, very good.
David Morton of the FAA, we were asking questions to the panel and they were saying that they had problems with police using the unmanned aircraft and data retention, how long you're going to keep it, what are you going to use it for, whether you're a fire or a subpoena or not. And Dave Morton posed the question and said, okay, if we just leave law enforcement out of it, let's just put them on the fence. They don't get to play. Would you have a problem with the fire people and the search and rescue people flying and collecting images for that task?
And they all kind of looked at each other and didn't say anything for a while. And finally, the guy from the ACLU popped up and said, no, I guess we wouldn't. That's kind of interesting. And as to a man, the panel agreed, I mean, it was supposed to be a bunch of privacy experts up there and they agreed that, yeah, under that circumstance, most people are not going to object to it because you hear the sirens and you see the big red and white come roaring by everybody runs to the curb and watches as it goes by.
But you hear the sirens and you go outside and it's a black and white, people tend to turn around and go back in their houses. I thought that was a pretty funny analogy there, but it's true. Yeah, that is interesting. But again, I think it kind of comes back down to people are a little apprehensive about the technology being used on them.
We've been round and round on it. And even when we had the gentleman on from EFF, and he was saying, well, the same arguments about storing the data, whatever else. And I said, if I did it privately and I owned the mall analogy, I'm going to keep those tapes to indemnify myself against liability in the future if anything does happen. And I can prove, hey, I've done everything in my power to protect the public, my customers, the people on my property.
And I'm going to save that data too. I still believe that, has I been espousing for a while and I'm starting to hear that, let's say some of that starting to come back to me, get with the public, come up with a best practices, how you're going to use this technology. If you're a police department, go into the community. I mean, I thought Berkeley was right on target, go into the community.
Hey, this is how we want to use it. This is what we're going to do with it. Here's how long we're going to keep the data, yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. Okay, sounds good.
Let's as a community come together and kind of talk about the privileges for the use for the police department. You abuse the privileges, they get taken away. It's that simple. Yeah, yeah, it's not rocket science.
And the other thing is we have to start to really start talking about the operational envelope. People, I'm telling you, they think, oh, there's these flocks of drones are going to take off from the police departments and be monitoring everything everywhere. Not going to happen. And not going to happen for a long time.
So let's be realistic. Let's not go overboard. And we could go on about privacy all darn day, but we are going to move into the first segment and bring on our first guest. And that is continuing with the AUVSAOA Board of Directors election season, things that we're doing here.
And we're going to talk to some of these candidates about their vision for the future if they're elected. And our first guest is Mr. Dallas Brooks. Hello, Dallas.
Hi, Patrick. How are you guys doing today?
Doing good. Doing good. Another beautiful day in California. All right.
Well, you know, when we get into this thing, I'd like to, when we bring guests on, obviously you've been involved in the, let's say, use of unmanned aircraft systems and also the integration process. And I kind of know a little bit about you, Dallas, but for the benefit of the audience, could you please, you know, elaborate, give us a bio about yourself, how you've been involved with unmanned aircraft, how you got here?
Sure. Thanks for the opportunity to have me on the show. I've spent probably the better part of the last nine years, almost all of it, in fact, working specifically on unmanned aircraft systems integration issues on behalf of the Air Force, the larger DOD, and in concert with the FAA, DHS, and NASA. That's been my focus.
It's been my primary job. But going back a little ways, to give you an idea of my background, I grew up in an aviation family. My dad was a Marine Corps traffic controller. My mother was a Navy air traffic controller.
And then I joined the Air Force to become an air traffic controller. So we tried to cover as many bases as possible. But quickly, I was very fortunate. After I was qualified as a young enlisted man, some folks took an interest in my career and helped sort of nurture me along.
And next thing I knew, I had an ROT scholarship and a commission, and was working my way through a variety of assignments. And I've been aviation, air traffic control, airspace management. I've also been communications and networks, three times actually, a networks chief. I spent 9-11 at the Joint Special Operations Command headquarters of Fort Bragg, managing their comm networks.
And it was while I was doing special operations that I was first made aware and introduced to the capabilities of unmanned aircraft. And that was right around the 2002 timeframe. Really got excited about it and wanted to stay with it. So fast forward just a couple of years, the Pentagon, the way that they deal with civil airspace issues is through this body called the DOD Policy Board on Federal Aviation, or the PBFA.
And the PBFA was looking for an executive officer in the mid 2000s. And they were really struggling with UAS integration. All the services were clamoring. They needed more access.
They needed to be able to fly Preds, Reapers, and Shadows, and Ravens, and Global Hawks. And they needed someone to sort of take point on a lot of that. And they went into the big master computer in the sky and punched in airspace, air traffic control, flight, communications, and they had got one name. And it was me.
It was the one time in my life where my diversity of jumping around from place to place, my career ADD, if you will, stood me in good stead. And the next thing I know, I was headed to the Pentagon. So I didn't spend a lot of time there as an executive officer. They quickly put me to work working UAS integration issues.
I moved through several jobs successively, the military director of the PBFA, the Air Force's chief of UAS integration, the DOD senior liaison to the FA for unmanned aircraft. And over this time period, all the way up to my retirement, I developed a reputation for, I'll call it eternal dissatisfaction. I was never okay with how things were. I always wanted to make them better.
Most folks were still taking that 10, 20, 30 year view. It's a hard problem. It's going to take us a long time to solve. And granted, pieces of it are.
They're very hard. But that doesn't mean you can't push for real changes on a localized level or in a specific arena today. And that's the approach that I took. I helped write and push through that 2007 memo of agreement between the DOD and the FA that opened up about half a million square miles of airspace in the class G without a COA.
Also helped the JCOE with the minimum training standards. And by the end of my four year tour at the Pentagon, I sort of had a decision to make. I loved unmanned aircraft, but the Air Force is going to pull me back in to do other work. So I talked it over with my wife and decided that I just couldn't leave this industry.
I loved it too much and dropped my retirement papers. And I thought I was on my way out of the Pentagon until Dyke Weatherington reached out with that big fist of his and grabbed my collar and yanked me back in and said, I need you to put on a suit and come to work for me and share the airspace integration IPT for the DOD. So that's where I spent my next three years. So you did, you actually sat in the FAA UAPO office, is that correct?
Weren't you in the military liaison? You were in there for a while. And I have to ask you a question now, because this was kind of a kind of story floating around in that office about Bruce Tarbert's barbecue. Now, did you ever get invited?
Well, let me tell you, Bruce Tarbert is a grill master extraordinaire. The equipment he has would support a mid-sized restaurant. He's got a grill on a trailer, that big split open thing. So yeah, he knows what he's doing.
He does. Now, it's funny is when we did the demo down at Quantico, the Marine base, the FBI was the sponsor of that. And yeah, we had a bunch of folks out there and along comes like this F 250 pulling this huge, huge barbecue trailer. And Bruce is like, all right, no barbecue for everyone.
And we kind of had a thing going, you know, it was kind of a joke because I'm a vegetarian and Bruce was kind of offended. I go, I'll bring some knot dogs and throw them on the grill. So Bruce, you know, no, no tofu on my grill, you know, but it was kind of a funny thing. And then it was at something else where there was some other FAA people that weren't involved in unmanned aircraft.
And they were like, yeah, that, that Bruce Tarbert, man, he really knows how to do some barbecue. I was like, man, the thing is that Bruce's barbecue is known all over DC and the FAA circles. I think you could lay two men end to end inside the barbecue. It's a big puppy.
It is. He fed everyone at the demo. There was probably 50 people out there and that was no problem. But just that was kind of a funny side note.
But all right. So you've been around, it sounds like you've been around just a little. You've been here and you're a relative newcomer. Now I'm just teasing.
Anyway, so with all of that, you bring a lot of experience to the table. You know, let me ask you how you would apply that in the framework of the AUVSI board. Well, I still have that eternal dissatisfaction mindset. And I think that boards, especially boards that only meet quarterly, the progress tends to be really slow.
There's not a lot of work done that gets done between meetings, I should say. And you can't be agile enough to react effectively to current problems or much less be proactive. So that's how we've ended up at such a tremendous disadvantage on this issue of UAS and privacy. I mean, those organizations that are attacking unmanned technologies, they're organized, they're focused, they have a calm plan, they have a media plan, and they come to work every day, not just once a quarter.
And so we are bound to lose that battle unless we restructure how we do work in between those board meetings. The AUVSI membership, they've got a tremendous amount of talent that's sitting on the sidelines. I mean, that talent has got to be harnessed. You've got to get form those working groups and teams that work continually between the board meetings.
You've got to pick the right talent, you've got to organize them, you've got to empower them especially to act on behalf of the industry. Otherwise, we're going to continue to get beaten and beaten badly on the issues that matter most to the UAS and UMS industry. Well, I would concur with that. They do have a pool of talent par excellence.
It seems like it's a little, how do you say, underutilized. So I do concur with that. And I like that idea that you sound like you're more proactive. So what's your vision if you're elected to this board position?
I got to tell you, I believe that we have to mature the entire industry. We've got to turn this industry into a powerhouse because that's what we deserve to be. Where unmanned systems are going, those of us who work in this industry already know. Other folks are coming along slowly.
But the larger aerospace industry has 100 years of history and leaders with 30 plus years of experience in senior positions. They've got effective lobbyists and lawyers and all of those guys know their business better than anyone. But today, the majority of your AUVSI membership, they self-identify as aviation, aerospace, or robotics professionals that have an unmanned systems focus as opposed to identifying as an unmanned system professional. And I think we need to change that.
I mean, some of the brightest minds in the world work in this industry and they do so because they've got a passion for unmanned systems. So we've got to build that culture and that supportive structure that develops and retains unmanned systems professionals. We've got to step out of the shadows, into the light. And only then can we realize the potential of unmanned systems, not only to save lives, but to change the way we do business, change the way we approach major problems in a way that's safe and effective.
And when you think about what AUVSI's role is, they're a 501C6 trade organization. They're there to be the organization that helps grow the industry. So I can't think of a better fit or a better place to start to move that kind of maturity forward than within the annals of AUVSI. So you're kind of a let's get some change from the inside and move forward and start addressing some of the major issues that we have.
And is that in the short term or you think also in the long term? The long term has been almost beaten to death. I think if you lay out the short term, what we used to call the low hanging fruit or the quick kills, and I think Gene brought up a great point. We're letting things like privacy derail everything.
But if you pose the question, okay, what about if we excluded law enforcement for a moment, not that I don't support law enforcement, I do, but just for the moment and wrote the rules for emergency responders, search and rescue, precision agriculture where guys are flying over their own property anyway and no one lives there, and push forward. Could we get that done in the next year or two?
And I absolutely think we could. And then success in that arena sort of makes it obvious how we would do it for the law enforcers and other folks down the road because we would have use cases that would prove that it's safe and effective and can be controlled. Absolutely. Yeah, and that makes sense.
Hey, you get out there, you start using it, people start teething on this stuff, and we learn from our mistakes. I think that is something we're being held to a really high standard, which I take some exception to, but that's another conversation for another time. All right, well, you know, I wanted to, I had a few more things going on, but can you talk about in 60 seconds maybe something, a project that you're currently working on, Dallas?
Dallas. Sure. Where I work at the ISR group, we've got a UAS airfield. We've got about a dozen active COAs right now based on a single airspace model, so you don't have to go plot ground tracks and things of that nature.
And, you know, I mean, we support those users that get those COAs. We don't get COAs ourselves, obviously, but we're the facility. We provide the trained pilots. We provide the unmanned systems.
So when a university says, I've got a sensor, I want to test, we say, great, we'll handle all the details. It's your job to be the scientist, and it's our job to be the F-150 truck that gets you in the air in a professional manner. So along those lines in the precision act piece, we partnered with the university and actually planted about 20 acres of corn right there on our airfield. So when they want to launch
and do daily hyperspectral assessments of everything from pigweed to the herbicide application, that they can do that without having to get a special COA for their location at the university and things of that nature.
It's one of the ways that we're trying to grow a capability and looking towards the future. I mean, this is not something we're trying to make money on. It's something we're trying to grow a capability so that others can realize potential. And that's the kind of thing that gets me out of bed in the morning.
All right. That's good. Sounds like a passion. Website where people could learn more about this work.
I've got a brief log entry, www.brookesforboard.blogspot.com. And that's got links to my LinkedIn profile and an email linked to me, which I think is important. I don't know how many board members currently say, hey, look, here's my email address. If you've got an issue or you want to shoot the breeze about a topic, give me a call, send me an email and let's start a dialogue.
I think we have a responsibility because board members work for the membership to make ourselves available, directly available, easily available. So that would be careful for what you wish. Well, hey, I'm at a four-hour conversation with Patrick, so I don't know how much more I can get. Well, I don't know.
It could get longer. But okay, thank you, sir, and good luck. And we'll be talking to you in the future. Thank you so much.
I appreciate the time. Thank you. All right. Well, that was pretty interesting.
There's one guy that's got a real passion for the technology now. And we're going to continue. We're going to march right on because we've got two more guests. And our next guest is Mr.
Benjamin Miller. And Ben, are you there?
I am. I'm here. Thanks for having me. Hello, Ben.
You know, we've been trying to get you. You're a hard man to nail down. Life is pretty fast-paced lately. It is.
This has a way of doing that to you. All right. Well, you know, we kind of, we know who you are. We got your number.
We know that you're active in UAS work, legally. You're also very active in the integration effort. But for the benefit of the listeners, could you please give us a bio, what you're doing, how you got here?
Could you do that for us, sir? Yeah, you bet. Well, I, you know, I'll kind of start with my work with the Mesa County Sheriff's Office. I've been here 13 years now.
And I started what feels to me like a long time ago, I guess, back in our jail as a deputy. And for about seven years there, I moved out to the operations side of the house and quickly got involved with some wildland firework and search and rescue stuff. Excuse me. And kind of built a technical background there and then took on an admin job of being the logistics manager.
And then about five years ago, had a conversation in my office one afternoon about how great an unmanned aircraft could be for our search and rescue efforts. And to be honest with you, I kind of laughed at it when we first began to chat about it. I thought, yeah, right. You know, I had that typical perspective of predator drones and missiles and stuff.
And a short time thereafter that I really began to think, hey, maybe, and did some research. And, you know, we've been up and running now operationally for the last four years. We have a COA that allows us to fly anywhere in our jurisdiction daytime. We're working with the FAA to see if they can get us some permission to fly at night to kind of expand our operational mission capability and really focusing in right now on small unmanned aircraft.
You know, the category of 25 pounds or less. And really just trying to demonstrate what unmanned aircraft can do, not just as a public safety asset, but more as a community asset. We're even getting into some things with our public works department as far as surveying and that kind of thing. So it's been an interesting last five years.
You know, I've kind of, it's become my passion. I've jumped in with both feet and we worked directly with the DOJ and the FAA on their common strategy that they just recently announced. And I've had opportunity to address the Congressional U.S. Caucus.
I worked close hands with AVSI, Senate and F38 subcommittee, and then had the pleasure of testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee recently. And it's kind of been the highlight of the progress and gaining and sharing that knowledge over the last couple of years. I watched the video of the Senate hearing with our man, let's say, a subcommittee on privacy and technology chairperson, Al Franken. And I commend you.
You did a very good job. Thanks. I have to say, so far the experiences of my career. So I'm glad we had the opportunity.
I think it was great that they sought some end user perspective. I think that getting your discussion at the onset of your podcast here, just with the privacy issues and everything else, it's been our challenge to kind of bring that conversation back to the realities of what we're really actually doing in public safety and what's really already out there as far as rules and regulations and management of information, et cetera. So it was a great opportunity to go and to share some realities with some key policymakers.
Yeah. As a side note, I thought it was kind of interesting because I didn't see that video. I actually found it through the Code Pink website. I didn't find any links.
Hey, I'm checking it out. I want to know what they're talking about. So I'm listening to that. And it was right about the time I'm watching that, right as this prism thing broke and tempered with listening to Mr.
Franken talk about privacy issues and everything else. I was like, hmm, I wonder where you're at with this one, pal. But I had already had that as part of my narrative when I went and spoke at UC Berkeley Law and the Berkeley Drone Town Hall. I was already aware.
I was used to part of that is that most of the information that you have out there, if the government asks for it from any of the big, like Google or whatever else, they usually turn it over. So the privacy thing, I think, is kind of a red herring. Any idea that I think people are afraid when this technology gets turned on them. I don't know what's going on in the backyard.
I think it's a little, God, what is it? I don't know. Maybe a little self-aggrandizing to think that people are going to want to watch you either smoke pot in your backyard or whatever people are doing out there. I don't know.
But anyway, I think we can definitely work through those issues. And there are ways to go after the low-hanging fruit. And guys like you watching that video are out there doing the good work. And I want to commend you for that.
Well, thanks. It's kind of a responsibility, I think, we've realized over the last couple years of being one of the first, at least public safety end users, we have a responsibility to share the realities, the stuff that we've learned, lessons learned over the last couple years and get that out there. So it's something we're very open to. And we want people to know what we do.
It's nothing that scares me. And I'm a normal old guy. So I want to make sure that the public knows this isn't as scary as it may seem when you first get interested in unmanned aircraft. Right.
And the more daylight you have to it, the more fear you dispel. And going back to the beginning of the podcast saying, hey, work with the community. Hey, I mean, don't you go out into the community?
I know that you're very active, but do you go out into the community and say, hey, here's our unmanned aircraft. Here it is. Look, no hellfires. Yeah, absolutely.
Any opportunity we get. So good. Good. All right.
Well, you know, we could converse all day about that too, but let's talk about the issue at hand. And that is basically, you know, you've got a lot of experience too. You just went over that. We've seen you in action and videos and stuff that you've written and everything else.
How would you apply that in the framework of AUVSI? Well, that's an excellent question. You know, it's something I constantly have asked myself is, you know, where do we begin to, you know, pick a subject matter that we really want to focus in on?
And I think, you know, I have some ground system experience. You know, I've built a few of my own and conducted some field work with, you know, small stuff. But, you know, I'm definitely not a ground systems expert. You know, definitely not like Mark Gordon is.
I feel like I really represent that smalls. I call it the smalls, you know, the 25 pounds or less of airborne unmanned aircraft. And I really think until just recently, the US industry has really been, you know, about larger systems. And I think I bring a small UAS end user's perspective.
You know, I think it's fair to say that kind of the future is in the smalls. That will be the most widely used, you know, category of system. And I just think that, you know, if AUVSI is very active and usually right at the focal point of information opportunities, I just, I was looking at some stats and, you know, AVSI has done about 400 interviews since January and spoken with more than 100 congressional offices. That seems to me like it's critical that those guys on the forefront,
you know, the staff at AUVSI have the most up-to-date, you know, and practical information in their back pockets as they're doing these, really what I call information transfers.
I think that's what I can bring. I can, from a, you know, a board perspective, make sure that that ready connection to the membership and the user community is there so that the folks at the forefront that are moving this forward on behalf of the membership really have the information that they need to be successful. I like that. And I'm going to say also that I like the idea that actual users, I'd like to see, you know, my own personal, from my own personal experience, people, and it's the same motto that we have over here at SUAS News.
Everyone that's involved here has used the technology. And I think that one of the things that's lacking over there are people that have actually used the technology and it makes me happy to see guys that do use the technology getting on the board, getting more involved, because really that, I think, is the kernel there where you can go and talk to people and say, hey, you know what, I use this every day, or I've used this and this, and I've used it to do that. And I've, so you're not talking about secondhand information.
This is empirical knowledge that you're transferring to people. And so when I get guys like you that are users that want to be on, it makes me happy. So I like that. We're good.
We're good. You know, I hope the membership agrees. Well, they should, because I think that's something that's really been lacking. I will say that, you know, I have a finger on the pulse of the industry when I talk to people and people come out and talk to elected officials or governing bodies or even standards group and they don't have any actual, you know, let's say, I don't want to call it stick time, but, you know, being in the field and using this technology, they're not taken as credible as people that have been in the field with it and use the technology.
So I add some credibility to all of our, it's a credibility arrow in the quiver and I appreciate that. Now, I know you're really busy. I know you, you know, like I said, we can't even nail you down. So, you know, how do you think that's going to work?
And why, you know, I mean, you're going to run for the board. You have the time for that?
Well, yeah, you know, it's, you know, that is, that's one of the concerns, my own personal concerns. We get lots of interest and it's hard to not get spread too thin. Where we as an organization and a program now have to be careful is to make sure that we're spending our time with, you know, potent opportunities, I guess, to put it, you know, as best I can. And I think, you know, a spot on the AV of AUVSI board is just that, that it's a potent opportunity to help with the, you know, the direction of the entire industry.
One of my favorite things in the last couple of weeks, I've had some vacation time and taken the opportunity to turn off the email and completely check out to, to let go of some stress. And in that time I was gone, you know, the folks that we've trained up to move our program forward had some successful deployments in my, in my absence. And that's just a, you know, a really fulfilling feeling to know that,
you know, this thing is now kind of maybe birthing out beyond my guidance and that. So that, and I see that in the future that now we're beginning to mature the program, that it begins to live on its own.
And that just opens me up for, you know, other opportunities. And I really think that's the next step is taking a more, you know, national leadership role. So. All right.
Well, that sounds good to me. Now, in closing, and I don't know if you got a website going where people could kind of see what you guys are doing or the progress that you're making. Is there one?
There is actually, you know, that's one of our things to being transparent with our program is just, you know, taking the necessary steps to put our information out there. And you could go to www.sheriff.mesacounty.us. And you'll see down in the bottom right corner, a link to our UAS page. And on that link, you'll find my favorite document there is a, is a frequently asked questions document that we frequently update, but it's just a kind of a download of information of the things that we know, you know, the answers to the questions that we hear commonly.
And there's a couple of video links that we've put together. It just kind of shows you what we've done and what we do. And I guess if you're looking at that, looking at that from an interest of should you, you know, vote for me or not, I mean, that's really a representation of the program that I manage and kind of my brainchild and my passion. So, you know, maybe it's not something specific to myself and my attempts to become a board member, but I think it's an excellent example of the things that we do out here in Mesa County.
Excellent. Good luck, sir. I appreciate you coming on. Best of luck.
And you know, well, I hope we can talk to you in the future. Sounds good. All right. Have a good day, sir.
Yeah, take care guys. And thanks again for the opportunity. Hey, no problem. All right.
I like that idea where they've got the website and I would encourage folks to go there and check it out. And you could get kind of the real deal, the scope of what, you know, a sheriff's department is actually doing with the technology. And that's great. And I think they're being open and transparent.
What do you think about that idea, Gene? You know, that was one of the things that was brought up in this conference that I was in just last week, that if you take that to the public and you say, look, this is what we have. This is what we're going to do. And you can look at all the records and you can come in and visit us anytime you want.
It puts them at ease. And I think that's a fantastic approach. I think it's going to be something that we're going to try to apply here in our own area, in our own county, because I think that a lot of folks are left by the media and the media doesn't present the rosiest picture in the world for anything. So, you know, that's I think that's a really good idea.
No comment. No, I'm teasing. I agree. I think it's the thing to do and it would help any law enforcement program along daylight with.
All right. Well, and so we have our final guest and we're running a wee bit long, but that's okay. We'll run it out if we need to. This is our final guest and it's our continuing conversation, Mr.
Mark Gordon. How are you doing, Mark?
I'm good. How are you?
Thanks for the opportunity to have us on here today. Oh, hey, no problem. We want to, as you can be, I'm sure you've said and you've listened to this, where, you know, our goal is to try and give information to the membership. So the membership is, let's say understands some of the issues from the different points of view and what people want to do.
So with that, could you please give us a little bio about yourself, sir? Sure. Graduated with a mechanical engineering degree and then I went to the Marine Corps, spent my time in the Marine Corps as artillery officer. After that, I joined a couple of different high tech companies focused on robotics automation, actually.
So very commercial focused handling of storage devices in the robotics industry. And that's really what brought me into the robotics world and the unmanned systems world. After spending a few years doing that, very focused on doing the engineering component of robotics all the way to new product introduction and into the production phase. I started my own company in 2001 and then have been doing robotics primarily since then.
Our segment includes a combination of government work as well as commercial work. So a lot of our focus is, you know, how do we take robotics and not only just do the research component of it, but, you know, take it from the research component all the way into the production aspect. And that's a big focus for me and part of what I want to help with the AUVSI side as well is how do we get through that quote unquote valley of death and how do we become more proficient about doing that?
I'm also on, go ahead please. Oh, I just, we need that experience. We definitely do. So go ahead, I'm sorry.
Yeah, and then I'm also on a couple of different boards. I'm on the board of directors for what's called CoLabs, which is a, there's a coalition of the 25, there's 25 federally funded laboratories here in Colorado. And I'm on the board of directors for that, which is a great opportunity to interact with all the different boards, whether, or all the different labs, whether it's NIST or NOAA, some of the universities. So it's a great exposure to talk about what's going on in the labs, learn from how they're handling their perspectives.
I just actually led the subcommittee for the strategy, the ongoing strategy for that ongoing board. We do an annual governor's award. I'm also on the board of directors for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. And I was the, I'm the Rocky Mountain chapter president here, that Ben is also part of here in Colorado.
And we've been having a successful chapter. I actually was one of the founding members, started the chapter up and have been the president for about three years now. And we just had, I have had our fairly large successful event here at the end of May. That's good.
That's good. Yeah. The being a chapter president's a little bit of a, it's fun. Get out there with a lot of work.
It is a lot of work, but it seems like everyone in this field, if you're in this field, you're passionate about it and you're wearing multiple hats. So that's a lot of good experience. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry.
And with that, I'll say with the chapter presidency, you know, the chapter presidents are allowed to go to the board members or the board meetings, excuse me, the AUVSI board meetings. And I've attended multiple board meetings there. So I understand what's going on, the dynamics that's happening, the kind of already engaged with what the strategy is for the board. So it'll be a very easy step in to be able to adapt quickly to what the board is, what the board's trying to do right now.
Yeah, I'd hoped I want to make one of those board meetings. I'm usually at White Sands in September during the board meetings and I never make it, but maybe this year, I keep hoping. Okay, well, so you got a lot of experience there. And, you know, I think that the experience that you do have is going to be useful to the membership and also within the board there.
So, you know, what's your vision if you're elected? What do you think yourself doing?
Yeah, so, you know, I really want to focus on, you know, a lot of AUVSI is focused around UAS, which is by far one of the larger markets. I want to focus on exploring other markets that are out there as well. I know we've talked about agriculture a lot. My company is a little more ground based, as Ben had mentioned.
So, you know, how do we drive more towards some of the things that are happening on the ground side and on the underwater side, as well as the different industries that are out there that are not the traditional aerospace industries and military industry? You know, how can we bring more of those people into the realm, make them understand that AUVSI is a good voice for their issues, whether it be industrial manufacturing or agricultural, as well as, like I mentioned, you know, we work for a couple of robotics automation companies.
How can we blend those companies together and be a stronger voice for what we're doing, and as well as the technology sharing that can happen between, you know, sensor companies that maybe the commercial side doesn't understand the sensors that are being developed and how they can potentially integrate them into their products and the partnerships that can become available. All right. And part of what
I would like to do is since we're a small business and we also have multiple offices across the U.S., I've been very involved with like the AUVSI Day on the Hill, and I know AUVSI does a lot of advocacy for the unmanned systems group, and I'd like to be part of helping push that forward.
I think that sometimes, you know, the organizations like AUVSI, whether or not the constituents base as much, you know, me as a constituent being able to go in with an AUVSI member, talk about the issues we're having with unmanned systems, both air, ground, underwater, where we see things need to be headed not only as a constituent, but as a board member of AUVSI and a small business. That's a very powerful message that I can then start to put across. I concur with that. And, you know, it's kind of funny you said that.
I mean, primarily most people are focused on the air, but, you know, I kind of, I like all the technology. I'm a big proponent of commercial space and things like that, and I think that really I could see a lot of ground-based farm equipment being totally unmanned, you know, having 20 combines, you know, lined up and one of them being, you know, manned and then the rest of them being unmanned and, you know, following the lead and doing the ballet and bringing in the corn or wheat or whatever. I think the market is huge.
And I want to be a farmer. Actually, I grew up on a farm, so I'm very familiar with that and what they're doing right now. They actually have GPS-assisted combines and tractors to try to reduce costs associated with fertilizing and the fuel costs associated with it as well. And I think, you know, that next level of more autonomy and, you know, the driverless, not the driverless car, but like you said, the driverless combine, the driverless combine would be the next step.
Well, that and, you know, the other thing I'd really like to see automated is, although I got to be careful, you know, I've already had failed threats from the Teamsters, but, you know, the road making or, you know, things like that, if that was all, you know, all those blades and everything was all automated and you could make freeways with unmanned guide, that'd be great. I think there was a big promise there. Okay. Well, you know, that's great.
And I definitely have a flavor and an overview of how you would bring your expertise to bear. You care to share anything that you're currently working on?
Yeah. So we're, we kind of, we have a very strong background in subject matter experts in the, I'll call it the IED fight. And so we do, we do a lot of tools and capabilities, both sensing, as well as tools and tool changing capabilities for helping with the IED fight, both homeland security as well as overseas. So that's one big thrust area for us.
We're also doing a lot in logistics and automation work across the board. How do we use robotics with the logistics applications, being able to move goods around better, be more, you know, more efficient in how we, how we load goods and how we move goods around both within the warehouse as well as on a transportation perspective. All right. That sounds good.
Now, do you have a website where people could learn about some of the stuff you're doing? Yep. Yep. So it's www.stratum.com.
And that's S-T-R-A-T-O-M dot com. We also have a Facebook page where we post things that we've been doing more on an interactive basis. And again, the Facebook page is just stratum. Okay.
Well, that sounds good. I wish you the best of luck too, sir. And hopefully we'll be talking to you more in the future. That sounds great.
All right. Well, thanks sir for being on. All right. Yep.
Thank you for hosting us and for having the opportunity for all of us to talk about what we're up to. That's what we're here for. All right, Gene. It was good talking to you too.
And until next week. Okay. Have a good one. All right.
Talk to you soon. Bye-bye. All right. Thank you.
Bye-bye.