Robotics by its very nature cuts across numerous sectors. In California this ranges from medical devices, to undersea, unmanned aerial vehicles to agriculture through to education and toys.

In preparation for the delegates heading out to California, I spoke (or hungout, if that’s a verb now) to the team at UK Trade & Investment in LA to get the low-down on the challenges, the opportunities and how UK startups can navigate the various US industries involved in this area.

See below for the full video with – Nick Hooper, Head of Science & Innovation, James Cummings, Vice Consul (ICT) and Chris McDonald, Vice Consul and US Sector Lead, Aerospace.

We chatted through the sectors, the geographic distribution of the industry, which networks to target, events to keep an eye on and how to engage with large US firms to target government contracts.

Amongst the many recommendations and resources, some required, if lengthy reading on the US market is the Whitehouse’s Road to Cutting Edge Robots announcement and the accompanying Robotics Roadmap.