AUVSI names more XCELLENCE award winners

The largest organization dedicated to the unmanned world, the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, will be presented on October 6. But the list of winners has been announced now, and we’re happy to share them with you.

This is the third annual AUVSI XCELLENCE awards. And it’s great to see the organization honoring members in multiple categories. There’s just so much innovative work being carried out. According to AUVSI, its awards “honor innovators with a demonstrated commitment to advancing autonomy, leading and promoting safe adoption of unmanned systems and developing programs that use these technologies to save lives and improve the human condition.” We’re all about using technology to improve the human condition, so we applaud the winners.

AUVSI breaks its awards down into categories. Here are those categories, along with the winners in each one.

Commercial/Enterprise Operation or Solution

1. UPS, UPS Flight Forward Drone Delivery
2. Second Place: Matternet, Inc., Matternet M2 Medical Logistics UAS
3. Third Place: Iris Automation, Casia

Hardware – Platform

1. First Place: Air Force Research Laboratory-led Team, SkyVision Ground-Based Detect and Avoid System
2. Second Place: FIRST iZ, FIRST Port^TM
3. Third Place: Kongsberg Maritime, HUGIN Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Hardware – Component

1. First Place: LightWare Lidar, SF45 microLiDAR 
2. Second Place: Velodyne Lidar, Inc., Velabit ^TM
3. Third Place: Ouster, Inc., OS2-128

Services

1. First Place: InNovo Partners, LLC, iPaaS – InNovo Platform as a Service
2. Second Place: SqwaQ, SqwaQbox

Software

1. First Place: Verity, Failsafe by Verity
2. Second Place: Airbus, Project Wayfinder
3. Third Place: Perceptive Automata, Bringing Human Intuition to Autonomous Trucks

XCELLENCE in Innovation

1. First Place: Iris Automation, Casia
2. Second Place: Emesent, Hovermap
3. Third Place: Dynetics, The Gremlins Program

The President Speaks:

We’re referring, of course, to AUVSI president Brian Wynne:

The rapid growth of the unmanned systems industry is reshaping our future by solving problems caused by a global pandemic, expanding business markets, providing consumers with innovative solutions and ultimately, saving lives. The XCELLENCE awards recognize companies and individuals who are achieving remarkable results with unmanned systems technology to benefit our communities.

Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI

Congratulations to all the winners. Hopefully, by 2021, we’ll be back at another fantastic AUVSI gathering and can watch the awards ceremony in a room filled with other people.