Kongsberg Geospatial IRIS UAS Situational Awareness Application provides BVLOS airspace management for Oil & Gas Pipeline Inspection in Africa
Kongsberg Geospatial enables Aerial Robotix to conduct BVLOS Pipeline Inspection demonstration flights in the Niger Delta using Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER® S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS)
Ottawa, CA: Kongsberg Geospatial, an Ottawa-based geospatial visualisation software company, and Aerial Robotix, the leading UAS services provider in Nigeria, announced today that the Kongsberg Geospatial IRIS UAS situational awareness application has been utilized by Aerial Robotix to provide safety critical airspace deconfliction supervised by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to enable conduct of long range BVLOS operations.
Aerial Robotix are experts in drone operations for Oil and Gas Inspection and deliver UAV operations services to major Oil and Gas companies using professional certified UAV operators. The company’s pilots are licensed and insured, and operate in harsh conditions using a variety of platforms ranging from small fixed-wing and quad-copter drones to large gas-powered rotary wing aircraft.
The Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) Schiebel CAMCOPTER® S-100 UAS is an operationally proven capability that requires no prepared area or supporting equipment to enable launch and recovery. It operates by day and by night, under adverse weather conditions, with a beyond line-of-sight capability out to 200 km, over land and sea.
“Safe BVLOS unmanned flight operations require the very best in equipment and technology,” said Kolapo Sodeinde, CEO of Aerial Robotix. “We would not have received regulator approval from the NCAA or the client company to conduct BVLOS inspection flights without the Kongsberg Geospatial airspace deconfliction application.”
“IRIS provides an extremely cost-effective solution to deliver airspace situational awareness and significantly improve flight safety”, said Tudor Moss, CTO at Aerial Robotix.
The Kongsberg Geospatial IRIS display technology enables multiple drones to be monitored simultaneously by a single operator and provides real-time calculation of aircraft separation, airspace monitoring and communications line-of-sight to enable BVLOS operations. IRIS integrates a variety of data feeds including ADS-B and radar to provide “detect and avoid” warnings. IRIS provides real-time 2D and 3D visualization of airborne track and weather data, as well as geo-fencing capabilities.
“We’re very pleased to be working with an experienced UAS services provider like Aerial Robotix”, said Ranald McGillis, President of Kongsberg Geospatial. “Their expertise in Oil and Gas logistics and their ability to manage large-scale projects provides an excellent and very unique use case for our technology.”
To learn more about Kongsberg Geospatial, visit their website at www.kongsberggeospatial.com
