Drones and unmanned vehicles draw interest from people in all sorts of fields. That much was clear at the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant Monday evening.
About 65 people, including police and fire officials, hobbyists, entrepreneurs and educators were present for the launch of The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Miami satellite chapter.
Prav Yalamanchi, a filmmaker who used a drone to film parts of a virtual reality zombie movie called Zombie Beach in Lake Worth, was one of the enthusiasts who showed up for the meeting.
"I hung a camera upside down on the bottom of a drone and I used it as a virtual crane, so I basically flew the drone through the zombie hoards," he said.
Yalamanchi said he plans to join the group for networking opportunities.
"The people who are here are a self-selecting group. They really want to innovate," he said.
In addition to filmmaking, unmanned vehicle technology can be used for hurricane tracking, power line repair, self-driving cars, search and rescue and agriculture. The club aims to give a forum to South Floridians involved with those fields and others.
"Miami is one of the up-and-coming tech centers in the United States," said chapter director Christopher Todd. "This is just the beginning."
