Insitu Looks to Commercial Market Opportunity, HoloLens VR Integration
Insitu has integrated its platforms with Microsoft HoloLens.
In 2013, an Insitu team launched a ScanEagle UAS to monitor ice floe movement in northern Alaska, under a contract arrangement with ConocoPhillips. Future missions evolved to include the potential for search and rescue, in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Combined with an increased customer demand, the Alaska missions encouraged the Bingen, Washington, company’s brain trust to broaden its customer base by reaching out to commercial and nonmilitary government entities, says Paul McDuffee, Insitu’s vice president for government relations.
“Our customers are motivating us to pursue this market,” says McDuffee.
More recently Insitu deployed another ScanEagle to monitor and survey 130 miles of railroad track in central New Mexico, as part of the FAA’s Pathfinder initiatives. During the New Mexico mission, the ScanEagle flew well beyond the vehicle operators’ line of sight. This aspect is critical to the future of commercial UAS applications, McDuffee says.
“The key challenge is access to airspace. The current airspace environment was never designed to accommodate UAS,” McDuffee says. “We really have to get out beyond line of sight.”
The company is integrating its platforms with Microsoft’s HoloLens virtual reality system, which is available for demos at Booth #2213.
