Multi-Drone Control System Improves Situational Awareness

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A Canadian-based military technology firm has recently announced that they are introducing a multi-domain control system for drone coordination in the airspace. Over the past few years, Kongsberg Geospatial has been developing an airspace awareness system for UAVs operating beyond the station’s line of sight. The system, called IRIS UxS, has been developed based off of Kongsberg Geospatial’s experience with developing air traffic control systems, both for the civilian and the military market.

IRIS was originally developed with the civilian market in mind, allowing commercial drone operators to operate their drones beyond visual line of sight without the concern of crashing into another drone mid air.

The system utilizes several sensors and other sources to obtain real-time data that creates an accurate visualization of the airspace around a drone. The system shows the operator on a 3D map where the drone is, hazards, terrain, and other aircraft and UAVs in the airspace.

Suasnews.com mentions that IRIS has been further developed into a multi-platform control system that can allow a single operator to control several drones from one station.

Today, Kongsberg Geospatial has developed a military variant of the IRIS. The new system merges data gained from a variety of sensors, allowing soldiers to operate several autonomous vehicles at once from the same station. Among the civilian variant features of the IRIS, the military variant also sports an undersea terrain visualization, for increased situational awareness and for the possibility of operating USVs and UUVs.

The company aims to further develop the system to include the coordination of larger manned vehicles and ground forces into the system, thus managing to create a clear image of the battlefield that improves the situational awareness of military commanders and soldiers alike.