Iris Automation Granted Second BVLOS Waiver for Reno BEYOND Program: this time with Casia G, ground-based detect and avoid technology.

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

Safety avionics technology company Iris Automation has received a waiver for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) autonomous operations on behalf of the City of Reno, a participant in the FAA’s BEYOND program, for the use of its Casia G ground-based solution. This is the second waiver Iris Automation has been granted on behalf of the City of Reno’s Fire Department, having obtained another just last month for autonomous flight with its Casia X.

The waiver enables the drone operator to fly without maintaining visual contact. Casia G leverages Iris Automation’s detect-and-avoid technology to establish a stationary perimeter of sanitized, monitored airspace, allowing Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to perform work safely by granting awareness of intruder-piloted aircraft.

Casia G does not require integration onto the aircraft, and its ground-based placement provides greater flexibility in establishing permanent, sanitized air space and in quickly changing locations by simply relocating Casia G.

“Casia technology provides a critical safety layer, helping to enable the integration of uncrewed aircraft into our national airspace,” said Gabrielle Wain, Iris Automation’s Vice President of Global Policy and Government Affairs. “This latest approval to fly BVLOS using Casia G gives operators looking to perform remote and one-to-many operations a solution to mitigate the risk of mid-air collisions, without having to use human visual observers. This is a critical step for the economical scaling of small UAS BVLOS missions.”

The FAA BEYOND program, formed to aid the FAA in establishing safety and performance standards for BVLOS operation by working with a diverse array of industry and public stakeholders, grants partners substantial field learning experience to help inform regulatory recommendations. The City of Reno and Iris Automation have been working together since 2019, first partnering in the FAA’s Integration Pilot Program (IPP), to test the use of autonomous drones during river rescue missions.

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Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.