Aerial Appreciation Awards Spotlight | Skydio Ascend '24

Celebrate leaders driving remarkable results and reaching key milestones.

Gonna make a personal confession.

I'm a nerd.

Okay? And I think I can speak for a lot of my fellow Skydians when I say we just love to geek out on really cool technology.

And let's face it, it doesn't get much cooler than making robots that fly.

But that's not what motivates us. What motivates us was a kind of stories you just heard. It's what you do with the tech that we make that gets us out of bed every day. And so I'm very excited for this next session because we're gonna move the spotlight off of our technology and and and our products and so on and onto you in our first ever Skydio aerial achievement award ceremony.

Hey.

Maybe not quite as dramatic as Adam, you know, pulling the wind wall curtain down, but in my mind, it was gonna be a dramatic moment. Alright. So we got a number of, awards we're gonna, hand out today to recognize many different aspects of the contributions that our customers are making in the world with their drone technology. And those first one is what we call the frequent flyer award. And this goes to those who have flown the most number of flights in a year. And it's staggering what these organizations have done. In fact, each of these companies, we have a tie, have flown over twenty thousand flights in a year.

Given that two hundred and fifty thousand flights we're on track to do this year, that means that collectively, there are, like, sixteen percent of the flights being done, with Skydio in the world today. And today's winners are Duke Energy and BNSF Railway. Please welcome Garrett Scott, chief pilot from Duke, and Nerissa Perkins, senior manager of UAS operations from BNS.

Congratulations.

Alright. Why don't you have Nerissa here? Congratulations. Alright.

We got our photographer. Come on in here. We're gonna get you let me give you that. We have our photographer. There they're in the back.

They're, awesome.

Alright. Congratulations again.

Narissa, why don't you just we're gonna have you all move off this way. Thank you.

I should have said, when I call your name, come up here to my right, exit off to my left.

Alright. Our next category is called from flight to insight, and this recognizes an organization that's done a fantastic job of turning data gathered by drones into actionable insights that are making an impact on their organization or their company.

And, this year's winner is BNSF Railway.

And so we're gonna welcome Nerissa back on stage again to receive the award.

Okay. Now, VNSF was one of the first adopters of Skydio's s two, as a tool for asset management way back in, twenty nineteen. So they've been working through this with us on this journey for a long time.

You guys even developed an application, I think you called Mission Control, allowed you to do unique things with the drones, such as putting eyes on derailed train cars, verifying or refuting rail car spills, post mortem rail or post storm rail inspections, not post mortem.

That's that's grim.

And managing large container, yards. So, for that innovation, congratulations.

Thank you. I think we're gonna get there.

Alright.

Thank you.

Alright. For our next category, we call this the best new program of the year.

And this this recognizes an organization that has stood up very quickly and made an impact very quickly with a new drone program within the calendar year. And this year's, award winner is Chicago PD.

Now, your your the dramatic footage we're about to watch here, is the culmination of a citywide task force organized to solve a series of thirty armed robberies.

Victims were being lured by, Facebook ads to come buy dirt bikes, and when they showed up, this gang basically pistol whipped them, held them at gunpoint, and forced them to give up their money.

That's not what the drone program was set up to do. The amazing thing is it was set up to do the to get ready to do security overwatch for the Democratic National Convention. But within less than six months, Chicago PD had achieved their overwatch and had begun to solve major crime, situations such as this. So on behalf of, Chicago PD, please welcome Marcus Buenavirostro to the stage to receive the award.

There you go. It's a it's a little heavy. Congratulations. We get him.

Awesome.

Congratulations again.

This next award goes a little bit of a different direction. This is our social impact award, and this is highlighting organizations that have used Skydio drones in nonstandard ways to impact education, the environment, the community, to do something that makes the world a better place.

So let's see the story of New York Power Authority, NYPA, and how they are making the world a better place.

I'm in an area where kids normally would never ever get to probably even touch a drone. So the fact that they were able to get that experience in school, it'll open their minds to say, hey. Maybe I wanna be a drone operator one day.

I think it says the drill looks so good. Oh, look. Come on.

A lot of them open up their eyes, but going from flying to seeing the final deliverable has been really, I believe, changing of of what it actually can do.

It's not just a toy. It's a tool.

On behalf of NYPA, please welcome to the stage, Peter Kaleitsidis.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you for the work you guys are doing.

Oh, man.

It's a little heavy.

Alright.

Get a left. You got it. Alright. Our next category is best use of autonomy. This is as exciting as Academy Awards, isn't it? It really is. Alright.

Best use of autonomy recognizes organizations that have pushed the boundaries of drone autonomy, maximizing capabilities, and and really doing unique things with the technology.

This year's winner is Pacific Gas Electric PG and E.

So PG and E has been a real trail trailblazer in the utility sector. They were the first utility in California to implement fully remote operations with drones.

They've been using automated data capture in the field. They've been enhancing system operator and community safety while reducing time, resource expenditure and operational costs. Their use of drone technology reflects a commitment to modernizing the power grid in California, which will have impact across the state and beyond. Please welcome to the to the stage on behalf of PG and E, Kellen Kirk, UAS program manager.

Congratulations.

Awesome. Congratulations again, Kellen.

Alright. Our next category here is achievements in innovation, subcategory, transportation.

This category recognizes organizations that have pioneered new and innovative uses of Skydio drone technology, and moved it into uncharted territory, finding creative impactful applications for autonomous drones in the area of transportation. And this year's winner is Caltrans.

As part of the US DOT smart program, Caltrans prototype tested and successfully deployed a completely off grid X2 dock system, at a site near the California Mexico border. This site, to our knowledge, is the very first one to use entirely solar power and Skylink. A star yeah. Starlink.

This type of innovation sets the stage for off grid applications across the state and everywhere else. So please welcome to the stage, Erin Chamberlain, senior transportation engineer for Caltrans.

Congratulations. Is that it?

Yeah. It is.

That's it.

Thank you. Congratulations again.

Our next award is for innovation as well, in this case, in DFR.

Well, you've already seen this group up on stage.

How can we not recognize them for the trailblazing, work that they're doing at such an enormous scale? This year's winner is NYPD.

New York City is unlike any other environment. Just people, cars, things everywhere.

When you think about the officer in the car who gets the radio call, you wanna best equip the responding team of officers with as much information as possible, and we do a lot of that through the phone, a lot of that through the iPad. But if you can pull up a feed from a drone that's already there and view that on your phone, I think that that's that's huge. It's absolutely huge.

This This is gonna be the first, drone as a first responder remote op flight. Our remote ID is activated. We are going to launch and fly north at one five zero feet. Now we're flying drones from a computer in Queens, and the drone is in the Bronx.

This is real to us. Right? We're operationalizing this in real life at this precinct before seven. So all four docks and drones on the rooftop, we're gonna bring it to the big city, the big apple.

Now we can see firsthand exactly what's going on and be able to move police resources around.

It's fundamentally going to change the way we do policing here in the city.

Please welcome back to the stage, Rich Neurag.

There you go, man. Get some hardware for you. Alright. Congratulations again.

Alright. Our last innovation award, this is in the utility space.

Once again, we're recognizing unique and innovative uses of drone technology and operations.

In this case, the winner is Dominion Energy.

So Thomas Butler, UAS manager, and Matt Rogers, operations leader for Dominion Energy, led the rapid installation of three sites, within just four weeks of delivery of their drones and their docks, along with fast tracking the essential waivers.

They have plans in place to deploy fifteen additional Skydio dock solutions, and they're leveraging the solutions across asset inspection, emergency response, feeder inspection, and security patrol.

Their visit their vision positions them as a true leader and innovator in this space.

Congratulations. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations.

There you go.

Alright.

Our next award is for Program Excellence in Critical Infrastructure.

This award recognizes organizations in critical infrastructure sectors that have excelled in integrating Skydio drones into their inspection and maintenance programs. And this year's winner is American Electric Power, AEP.

We want to have situational awareness of ports outages and armored crews with all the information before they load up the trucks with the test equipment, whatever they need to restore.

We have massive amounts of work, whether it be upgrading infrastructure or maintenance on equipment.

From a safety perspective, we've gotta go out there, look at those assets, and they've got a map that's on our drawings. And then, ultimately, it's gotta get to dispatch.

We have to take people out of their normal job, whether it be ten minutes away or hours away to a substation.

Using the X pen remotely, it's just gonna save time. It ultimately is gonna save customer minutes of interruption too. We're gonna be able to restore service quicker. The X10's the the perfect tool to do the job.

We can take pictures of nameplates from twenty feet away. We were able to achieve everything that we needed to complete our five k walk downs.

Gonna go from walk downs to fly downs.

Please welcome to the stage, Alex Ramirez, VP customer experience for AEP.

Congratulations.

Well done.

Here you go. We're gonna we're gonna look to our photographer over here.

Awesome. Congratulations again.

Alright.

It's not best picture, but it's still a pretty big award. In fact, our last award is the most important one. It's the life saving achievement award. In fact, it's so important that we had multiple nominees, and we felt like we needed to share all their stories. So before we get to the winner, I wanna share the stories of the first three runners up.

And those are Anderson Police Department, Pasco County Sheriff's Office, and Sumner County Office of Emergency Management.

In the Anderson Police Department story, they were out actually training with Skydios when a woman came up in distress because her husband was having a medical emergency, and they were able to use the drone right there from training to help guide in emergency responders and save this man's life.

In Pasco County, a child went missing and they were able to use the drone to find the child and the person who had abducted them in the woods, saving the child and returning him safely to their home.

And finally, Sumter County Office of Emergency Management, a man in clear mental distress, suicidal, was lost out in a field. They'd been searching for hours. They put the drone up. They were able to find him, get him home safely, get him the treatment he needed. Let's give a round of applause to our three runners up.

Our winner, and this is a story that you actually saw a piece of yesterday in the presentation, is Orange County Sheriff's Office.

It's nine eight zero one International Drive. Alright. And tell me what's happening. So we have a very violent guest staying in this room. He's yelling about killing a demon, and he's, like, banging on walls and stuff. We're trying to make contact, but he is not compliant.

Sheriff's office. Units are fine for the twenty five. The room is gonna be on the eighteenth floor. They're refusing to open the door, and no personnel contact has been made. They're saying it's extremely violent, and there's just two one adult in the room.

Let's just walk through it. Okay?

We're here to help you. Alright?

Yes, sir. We do have a drone operator down here. Do you wanna see if you can throw that up there so we can get eyes in on that window? Yeah.

Tempor if somebody, wants to do that. But There it is. It's that one. It's that window right there.

Where you see that guy moving? That's him. So he's pretty much knocked out a lot of the window then, it looks like. Just signal fourteen.

I have eyes on him with the drone outside. He's got, like, a shower rod. Now he's hitting the window. Oh, I think, actually, he's gonna break it.

Are the deputies next door? Those are deputies? Yeah. Okay. He has a, the companion door?

He's banging back on him. He's banging on this one. Yeah. He just tried to barricade that now.

I can try to move stuff over because there there's no couch in front of it.

The couch would be sticking out. Okay.

And then on the side, we're just gonna catch up.

And there's literally, like, yellow turn on. I think that's your first pass.

So it looks like the third We're not sure if he's trying to start, like, something on fire in there, so we'll start working on breaching.

Alright. Hit cards. Yeah. Where? Cards.

It's a powerful story.

It's a powerful story.

Powerful not only because the clearly mentally disturbed man's life was saved, we kept the officers safe and they kept the other inhabitants of that hotel safe. So on behalf of Orange County Sheriffs, please welcome Lieutenant Rob Branch.

Congratulations.

Congratulations. I can give you that.

Come right in here.

Awesome. Congratulations again. Congratulations.

Alright. If you if you ever doubt this is a live show, it in fact is, and I skipped over an entire award winner, which we're now gonna go back to.

And this is an award winner who I really should not have skipped over because they have been a pioneer with us since the very beginning, with x twos, x tens, DFR.

This represents program excellence, this award, and I'm very proud to announce Oklahoma City PD as the winner.

Well, thank you for being here. I really appreciate it.

Goal for Oklahoma City is to have the technology working for the officers and not the officers working for technology.

The the drones as a whole, especially for our department, has been night and day difference.

Yeah. I've got three people on the roof. It looks like they're walking towards them on the left side. We got three people on the roof. Great job, Wayne.

It's an amplifier of the manpower that we have on the street because they know where the person is. They can see it as they arrive because we have live view, live streaming.

That's like, looks like he was dead. Seventy four, so he ran in the back door and back here. Right. George thirty six isn't out there with the drum.

It's putting the right people in the right situations with the right information so that we have better outcomes.

He's laying down. He's on the far side.

Go ahead. Who's not moving?

Being able to talk to the community and going, this is what we're doing to help you all. Every tool is a piece of the puzzle on how do I keep the community safe.

Your margin one has been hit. All I've had is a red hoodie. Alright. I got a victim on the south side.

We've done the drone in the trunk, and they've been incredibly effective. We've had so many success stories with this. To be able to tie that into DFR drones as a first responder, having drones on top of buildings that can respond to a call without an officer, you have to look at, does this help our officers? Does this help our community? This vision does.

Please welcome Captain Jason Bussard.

Congratulations. Sorry about jumping right over you. Alrighty. Congratulations again. Alright.

Alright. That really does conclude this year's edition of the Ariel Achievement Awards.

One more round of applause for all of our winners this year, please.

I cannot wait to see what the next year brings, and I hope to see a bunch more new faces up on stage. Thank you very much. And I'm gonna turn it back over to you, Mercario.

Alright.

We are ready to go. We're gonna have, as I said, Scotty asked asked the experts out there, and then off to lunch at twelve thirty. Thank you all. We'll see you out there.