The event was attended by the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Vasiliy Shpak, the Vice-Governor of the Samara Region Anton Emelyanenko, as well as the leaders and representatives of domestic companies involved in the development and manufacturing of unmanned aerial systems, scientific and production centers, and government institutions. Moreover, participants from various regions of Russia joined the event via video conference.
The participants discussed the potential for cooperation between industry organizations within the Association of Unmanned Aerial System Developers and Manufacturers.
This idea was proposed by the Governor of the Samara Region and the Chairman of the Industry Commission of the State Council Vyacheslav Fedorishev at one of the meetings in March of this year.
“For three months, we have been interacting with the industry, collaborating with scientists, industry representatives,” emphasized Anton Emelyanenko. “The scientific and production center for unmanned aerial systems, ‘Future Transport,’ has done significant work in defining the goals: what functions the association should perform, how it will stand out among other public associations in Russia, and what advantages developers and manufacturers of unmanned systems will gain by joining the association.”
The Samara Region holds leading positions in the country in the development of unmanned aviation. It is included in the list of pilot regions where, as part of the national project “Unmanned Aerial Systems,” a scientific and production center has started operating for conducting tests and developing competencies in the field of UAS technologies. At the moment, 55 companies from 21 regions are working at the center, implementing 57 projects to create new types of drones, as well as their components.
The Vice-Governor emphasized that the time has come for the next stage of development of the rapidly growing unmanned technology sector at the all-Russian level. Currently, the number of participants in this industry exceeds a hundred, and their number continues to grow, attracting not only manufacturers of finished products but also companies producing components, universities, centers of technological competence, and scientific and production centers equipped with advanced technologies within the framework of the national unmanned aerial systems project.
Anton Emelyanenko noted that effective coordination of activities requires a systematic approach to integration within this industry. The establishment of an association will allow pooling the efforts of industry participants within the company “Future Transport.”
The meeting participants discussed the main areas of work and the future development of the interests of the professional community.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Vasiliy Shpak presented specific proposals and initiatives to the participants. He noted that currently, there is no organization in the country that would coordinate market development and bring together developers, manufacturers, users, scientific, and educational institutions, fully responsible for the ecosystem's development. This would allow combining efforts, coordinating resources, and jointly developing necessary solutions, with the availability of the corresponding expertise, including decision-making at the state level.
In particular, Vasiliy Shpak proposed developing open-source products in the field of unmanned technologies based on the association. He gave an example of using unmanned technologies in agriculture as one of the association's work directions. The essence of the proposal is that by coordinating information interaction protocols and hardware interfaces, association members will be able to reuse each other's developments under certain conditions. This will reduce time and costs, as well as avoid duplicating existing solutions. According to the Deputy Minister, this approach will significantly accelerate system development.
Vasiliy Shpak also proposed the establishment of a national award in the field of unmanned agricultural technologies.
“We plan to start preparing now so that in the fall, at the annual agricultural exhibition of the Samara Region, we can draw initial conclusions and present the initiative at the all-Russian level for the next year,” explained the Deputy Minister. “We plan to hold this event annually: collect information, confirm it, verify it, and, at the exhibition in the Samara Region, draw conclusions.”
At the end of the meeting, a memorandum on the creation of the Association of Unmanned Aerial System Developers and Manufacturers and an agreement of intent for the development of this industry between the Government of the Samara Region and representatives of the UAS market were signed.
