TruWeather Solutions teams with Iris Automation for ground-based weather surveillance for uncrewed aircraft

RESTON, Va., - TruWeather Solutions in Reston, Va., and Iris Automation in Reno, Nev., have announced the two companies will combine technologies in Iris Automation's Casia G ground-based surveillance system (GBSS). TruWeather is a data and analytics firm, while Iris Automation is an avionics safety technology company.

This meshed network will provide real-time integrated communications, collision avoidance and micro-weather data to operators.

Micro weather or low-altitude local atmospheric conditions can often substantially differ from that in higher altitudes, injecting uncertainty into the safety equation. This can significantly impact uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) operations and revenue.

According to an FAA-funded MIT Lincoln Lab study, currently only 3% of the U.S. has accurate surface weather and cloud ceiling report measurements.

"This is what we refer to as a 'data desert,'" said TruWeather CEO Don Berchoff, who is a retired USAF colonel and National Weather Service executive. "Up to 40% of crewed aviation flights that are either canceled or delayed due to weather could have flown. Even higher scrub rates will occur for UAS' flying beyond-visual-line-of-sight, with no pilot on board to spot problems, unless the surface and low altitude weather measurement gap can be closed."

TruWeather recently turned its focus to sensor placement and density optimization to capture microscale features with rapid update, at the lowest cost possible. Incorporating weather sensors into Iris Automation's non-radar based passive ground based system, Casia G, simply made sense for both companies.

Casia G is a ground-based detect and avoid solution, to allow operators to better detect approaching aircraft and avoid collisions. It leverages the same artificial intelligence and computer vision technology used in the company's Casia series of onboard integrated systems, including its 360 degree / 6-camera system, Casia X. The Casia product line provides unparalleled situational awareness for intelligent decision-making, including alerts and manual or autonomous collision avoidance.

All Casia onboard systems can detect a small general aviation aircraft at an average distance of 1.2 km with a 93.2% detection rate. Comparatively, Casia's milliseconds reaction time exceeds that of human pilots, who take about 12.5 seconds on average to avoid collision threats.

Because Casia G is sensor agnostic, it can be easily integrated with weather sensors to add real time weather data to nodes (the UA, Casia G, the command center), in addition to its already seamless air and ground-based communications.