What I saw a CES!

[salmon]

Once a year the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) comes to Las Vegas. It is the largest show of its kind. Where over 180,000 people flood into Las Vegas to visit vendors who are showing what they will have or do have available. If it has technology for the consumer in it, it probably has seen the CES show floor. For me, t is an opportunity to see what trends are happening and the direction technology is going. I have met vendors that we have bought from and ones I will contact in the future. This is such a great opportunity to get inspired and exhausted. Even being there every day, I saw maybe 50% of what was there.
Even though I was thinking of work, there is always my favorite hobby, RC SUBMARINES in the back of my mind. For example there was a component manufacturer that makes connectors and spring pins. I was discussing our hobby with him and he mentioned his father has a boat he wants to work on. Can I buy from this company? No, these companies sell 10,000 units, but they are the suppliers to digikey and mouser and many others. I will need to take a photo of the samples they gave me. Pretty cool.

Drones are still big this year. Big is an understatement. There are larger units designed to carry people and small ones for personal fun (plus everything in-between). The surprise was the water drones or ROVs! There were a lot. Last year it seemed there were only a couple. However this year, there were a lot. Here are some of them:

Thunder Tiger:

http://www.ttrobotix.com/product/seadragon

If you look carefully you will see characteristics of the original Neptune SB-1 bodies connected together and even the cone in the aft end. This version of the Sea Dragon is not released yet, but is an expansion of the current Sea Dragon ROV.
This next photo I merged with several to get this shot.

[salmon]

Sublue

http://www.sublue.com

I met a gentleman named Scott who shared more information on the technology they use in the drones. One of these (I believe this next photo) will have the ability to follow a diver or if you tag a fish or another person it will follow them. It communicates with the diver through a watch type device. It uses light pulses to communicate. It currently is not available and the prototype is not ready, but he is based out of southern California and said he would like to visit our Fun Run at Yorba Linda and maybe we will be able to help test the prototype!. Cool!

This next one caught my eye.


What caught my eye was this was on display hovering. It was auto correcting itself. When they did move it it was quick and responsive to commands given to it.

[crueby]

Take one of the larger drones, and hang a set of cradles under it to rescue rc boats.... Or kidnap scuba divers...!

[salmon]

RoboSea
http://www.robosea.org/en/


The little fish from the first photo was in a pool and and an acrylic cylinder. It was cute wiggling it's tail back and forth. I thought that any camera would be shaky, but it has a nimble setup that keeps the camera steady.



That shark is two meters long or something close to 6' long.

[salmon]

Chasing Innovation

https://www.chasing-innovation.com

Here is a picture of me taking a picture of the drone taking a picture of me.

[salmon]

Geneinno
https://www.geneinno.com





Powervision

https://www.powervision.me/en/

I have this photo, but do not have the company name


There were several others that I just did not get to.
Here is a drone that touted being able to take photos above and below water.
Splash Drone

https://www.swellpro.com/waterproof-splash-drone.html

[eckloss]

I'm not sure if I'm really impressed with the Thunder Tiger. My gut reaction is they could have done better than bolt together two Neptune bodies and throw a spoiler on it. Could have at least upgraded to fiberglass. A friend's husband has a recent Chasing Innovation and has shown some impressive images so far. Pretty decent value since it compares in price to the most recent TT Seawolf.

[bob the builder]

Thanks so much for sharing the info and pics! Did the suppliers offer price points for the ROV's? I'm just wondering if any priced at a place where they'd attract the hobby crowd (say, sub-$1000?).

[salmon]

@Erich I agree, but I have felt that way with the past upgrades or new models ever since the Neptune was retired.

@Bob At the show, no. In fairness, when I asked price it was on the larger models and the prices were $1,500 to $20,000+, it was hard to hear the answer. Most of the time language barrier got in the way. However, I went to RoboSea website and looked up the prices. The little fish called Biki goes for $799 and up. One of the vendors mention $1,500 for their model, but online I found it for $1,199.

[QuarterMaster]

Sweet.

Thanks for the report Tom! Always love a glimpse at new Technology.

I see the WHITESHARK MAX by Sublue has the prestigious "reddot" Product design award. At my last company, my Engineering team received one.

Again, good stuff.

[salmon]

Thanks Ed! It is fun to see the technology being used. Artificial Intlegence is/was huge. Many of these drones are being built with some incredible sophistication and technology. For the ones that are not tethered, communication was with sound or light. It will only get better and who knows how much will bleed into our hobby.

[salmon]

3D printing

This was interesting over prior years. This section seemed to be smaller than prior years. There were only 20 or so vendors verses double or triple that in past shows. However out of the vendors that were displaying things about 1/3 were showing metal printing 3D printers and more than half had Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). SLS uses a laser to sinter or cure a powder or liquid. Most or all the SLS printers I saw used a bath of solution that pulls out the item to be printed. The materials printed can be a very flexible to very hard, clear to opaque. Some material is able to be cast or some can be used to make parts that can be used immediately. The resolution on these printers are better than the usual extracted type 3d printers.

Formlabs had a large setup there.

The colors are painted on after, but the smooth surface was amazing.
I did not record the companies of these next photos

The rings above had amazing details

The traditional 3D using a filament were there as well, but nothing was really earth shattering. There was larger formats being built. here are a couple.





Metal printers
Most printers of this type were very large and expensive ($400,000 up)
One exception was this one


Yes you can print your own golf clubs.
The process goes like this, the filament is a mixture of a metal (in this case stainless steel) and a binder. It gets printed and anything that is needing to be separated from another piece (like a pin in hinge) or as a support is printed in ceramic (left object). The middle object has been heated and the parts just fall away from the ceramic dividers or any support material (like the golf club head).
The last part is after all the processes and polished. The piece on the right is polished and is 98% stainless steel.


This last one is a 3D painter. It can do tennis shoes or helmets in this case. I wonder if it could do a sub?

[JWLaRue]

Tom,

The photo of the soldier printed in a tan colored material.....was that done with a filament-based printer? Can you recall which company/model was used?

-tnx,
Jeff

[salmon]

Yes the soldier is filament based. Made on the Raise Pro (printer in photo prior). Cool huh?

[JWLaRue]

That's the first filament-based printer that I've seen that dosn't suffer from the layering effect. Time to go check out Raise Pro.....

-tnx,
Jeff