Kongsberg Geospatial Showcases IRIS UAS Platform in New York
Ottawa-based Kongsberg Geospatial will showcase its latest IRIS UAS platform today at the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) symposium in Syracuse, New York.
The IRIS UAS, which is known as an “airspace awareness platform,” is designed to help UAS operators safely conduct beyond visual line of sight flights.
“We describe IRIS UAS as an ‘airspace awareness’ application, because it is a very powerful tool for visualizing everything that’s going on in the airspace,” said Kongsberg Geospatial President Ranald McGillis via press release.
In order to act as an airspace awareness application, the IRIS UAS produces a 3-D picture of the operational airspace, which allows users to see everything in their surrounding environment, including other aircraft. Live tracking data is also produced thanks to sensors and cameras on the IRIS UAS, and the platform also provides additional information on things such as obstacles and restricted airspaces.
“With this wide range of sensor integration, we can get an unprecedented picture of unmanned air traffic by simultaneously leveraging several different kinds of positional data that gives a more comprehensive picture of the airspace than radar alone – especially with very low-flying unmanned aircraft,” McGillis said.
In coordination with the Canadian government and industry partners, Kongsberg has conducted field tests of the technology over the last two years. The company said it believes that its current version of the IRIS UAS is the “most comprehensively integrated application” of its kind in the world.
