Aims To Increase Awareness Of Canadian Technologies

Aero-News has learned representatives from leading Canadian defense companies, the Canadian government and academia have formed a national trade organization to promote the advancement and global application of Canadian expertise in the growing field of unmanned vehicle systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The new organization, known as AUVSI-Canada, affiliated with the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), is headquartered in Ottawa and will work to establish regional chapters. Its primary focus is to increase awareness of Canada’s leading-edge research and capabilities in fielding state-of-the-art technologies and systems in the rapidly growing area of unmanned vehicle systems.

The formation of AUVSI-Canada is a very important step in bringing together organizations with a common purpose in strengthening Canada’s position as a leading developer of unmanned systems solutions and promoting them to potential customers and partners around the world. It also links Canada to AUVSI’s initiative to network the global unmanned vehicle systems industry.

"Canada will become the model that we use to create similar organizations in Australia, Europe and Asia in an effort to develop stronger ties among the leading organizations in unmanned systems around the world," said Daryl Davidson, executive director of AUVSI.

An Advisory Committee has been established to guide the start-up of AUVSI-Canada including its incorporation and development of its charter, governance structure and business plan. As part of its launch activities, AUVSI is exploring holding a conference to highlight Canadian and related activities in unmanned systems in the Fall of 2007. More information on the event details will be forthcoming.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is the world's largest non-profit organization devoted exclusively to advancing the unmanned systems community. AUVSI’s 5000 members worldwide come from government organizations, industry and academia. AUVSI is committed to fostering, developing, and promoting unmanned systems and related technologies and is headquartered in Arlington, VA.

FMI: www.auvsi.org