Iris Automation launches Canada Pathfinder program to advance commercial drone operations

Iris Automa­tion has launched the Cana­da Pathfind­er Pro­gram, which aims help stream­line the com­plex steps required to achieve Beyond Visu­al Light of Sight (BVLOS) approvals and expe­ri­ence.

Recog­nis­ing the chal­lenges organ­i­sa­tions face when advanc­ing com­mer­cial drone ser­vices to per­form long dis­tance and remote­ly pilot­ed mis­sions, Iris Automa­tion has part­nered with Fore­most UAS Test Range in Alber­ta and the UAS Cen­ter of Excel­lence (CED) in Alma, Que­bec.

These two com­pa­nies are regard­ed as Canada’s lead­ing remote­ly pilot­ed air­craft sys­tem test facil­i­ties for sup­port, train­ing and prov­ing BVLOS flight com­pe­ten­cy.

Gabrielle Wain, vice pres­i­dent of reg­u­la­to­ry affairs at Iris Automa­tion, said: “Our work in Cana­da, specif­i­cal­ly with Trans­port Cana­da and the RPAS test sites, has demon­strat­ed the incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties the coun­try offers for advanced com­mer­cial drone solu­tions.

“We’re excit­ed to part­ner with the CED Alma and Fore­most as a way to bring the exper­tise required to local mar­kets and help jump­start the efforts for organ­i­sa­tions keen to get start­ed.” 

The Pathfind­er pro­gram will include flight train­ing, assis­tance gain­ing BVLOS approvals, a BVLOS safe­ty sys­tem, engi­neer­ing and reg­u­la­to­ry sup­port, and test cen­ter access.

It also deliv­ers a base­line of the pre-req­ui­sites need­ed to achieve BVLOS advanced oper­a­tions approvals from Trans­port Cana­da, expe­dit­ed issuance of Spe­cial Flight Oper­a­tions Cer­tifi­cate (SFOC) for BVLOS flights with­in test cen­ters.

Oth­er advan­tages include team train­ing and stan­dard pro­ce­dures on how to per­form safe BVLOS oper­a­tions, and pro­vid­ing the BVLOS flight expe­ri­ence need­ed to apply for sub­se­quent SFOC approvals.

William De Keis­er, Direc­tor of the Clus­ter of Excel­lence at CED, said: “We see incred­i­ble inter­est in util­is­ing com­mer­cial drone oper­a­tions but con­cerns about how to launch a pro­gram safe­ly, effi­cient­ly and in com­pli­ance with cur­rent reg­u­la­tions.

“Team­ing with Iris Automa­tion to pro­vide this com­plete pro­gram will help many com­pa­nies to final­ly embrace the poten­tial of drone oper­a­tions. As a Cana­di­an pio­neer in the civ­il and com­mer­cial RPAS indus­try, we are proud to con­tin­ue to devel­op the tech­nolo­gies and skills that speed up the advent of safe and well-inte­grat­ed BVLOS flight in Cana­di­an air­space.” 

In Octo­ber 2020, Trans­port Cana­da issued the sec­ond SFOC for (BVLOS flights in uncon­trolled air­space to MVT Geo-Solu­tions, util­is­ing infra­struc­ture mask­ing as well as Iris Automation’s onboard detect-and-avoid (DAA) solu­tion.

Under this SFOC, MVT, CED and Iris Automa­tion are part­ner­ing to con­duct com­mer­cial mis­sions over lin­ear pow­er lines in Alma, Que­bec. Approval was grant­ed to include the util­i­sa­tion of Iris Automation’s DAA sys­tem, Casia, which pro­vides com­mer­cial drones with auto­mat­ed col­li­sion avoid­ance maneu­vers.

Iris Automa­tion already par­tic­i­pates in the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Administration’s BEYOND pro­gram to advance more com­plex UAS oper­a­tions BVLOS in the US Nation­al Air­space Sys­tem. 

The com­pa­ny’s CEO, Jon Damush, talked to eVTOL Insights last week as part of our pop­u­lar pod­cast series. You can lis­ten to episode by click­ing here.