Innovation at Iris Automation

Jun 11, 2020

A quick look at where we’re at in June 2020

by Alexander Harmsen, CEO & Cofounder Iris Automation

In light of Iris Automation’s selection as a finalist for the 2020 AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards in two categories, including the top prize—XCELLENCE in Innovation, I want to share an overview of the current state of affairs and innovation at Iris. And although 2020 has proven a tricky cat, we’re continuing to make incredible headway here at Iris Automation.

Late last year we introduced a long-range version of our Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) system, Casia, and we’ve recently launched an additional version, Casia 360, which achieves 360 degree radial vision built to meet the highest regulatory standards for performance risk-ratios. While the capabilities of our Casia systems have already been acknowledged by the FAA and other CAAs for enabling true BVLOS flight, we are working to make our onboard DAA even more accessible to customers. 

To support our product growth and maturation, we’ve continued to build our rigorous testing program to bring Casia safely to market, to date logging over 14,000 real-world encounters and 600 terabytes of flight data that we use to continuously improve our software.

Our Flight Operations team continues to work tirelessly in the field, and we’re fortunate that the work allows them to social distance in the vast deserts of Nevada, where they are based.

And, to support organizations in the application and acceptance of BVLOS permissions, we’ve rolled out the Waiver Resource Center to make BVLOS accessible to everyone. We currently support permissions applications in the United States and Canada, with more CAAs coming soon, including the UK and South Africa. Our aviation policy specialists have thousands of man-hours assessing operational risk and establishing compliant BVLOS flight operations with and without a DAA system.

We’ve also launched an Ask Me Anything (AMA) series to give you access to the experts at Iris Automation and share our knowledge.

For more access to our team and others in the BVLOS space, join us on BVLOS & Beyond, a Slack workspace to host collective conversations with others interested in BVLOS, Casia integrations, navigating regulations, and more.

I look forward to sharing additional innovations with you by October’s XPONENTIAL conference, and I truly hope you are staying safe and healthy out there, 

Alexander Harmsen, CEO & Cofounder Iris Automation