AUVSI Conference 2012!
The Largest Gathering of Robotics Companies in History
Photos and Story by Tom Atwood, Lucien Miller and Monica England
The 2012 AUVSI (Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International) conference held August 6-9 in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center was a mind-blowing mega event that featured over 560 companies and thousands of unmanned systems designed to operate in every imaginable environment—air, ground, maritime, space, and in diverse markets, defense, civil and commercial. The mood was upbeat and festive. Only here could an enthusiast see the most sophisticated, bleeding edge robotics technologies in the world, all under one roof!
As noted by Gretchen West, Executive Vice President of the AUVSI, The AUVSI is now 40 years old, and this was the 39th year of the show. Over 100 technical sessions, panels and workshops were held during the conference, which was attended by well over 8,000. Gretchen noted that as the unmanned systems market has grown from defense to include more and more civil and commercial applications, the show has followed these trends.
Robot Magazine offered a sample of the diversity of robots and other unmanned systems exhibited at this grand event in print in our November-December 2012 issue—we hope you enjoy this expanded online gallery and our multimedia coverage, which includes video interviews with robotics leaders!






















































