Walmart partner mulls cell tower-type drone delivery safety network

DroneUp, the drone delivery company that Walmart uses, has announced a major push to make beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flights safer. DroneUp has partnered with Iris Automation, a developer of AI-based vision technology for crewed and uncrewed aircraft to prevent airborne collisions. Together, these firms will install hardware nodes that will act like a cellular tower-type service providing DroneUp with visibility of its airspace.

At the heart of this collaboration is Iris Automation’s ground-based Casia G solution, which features an optical, full 360-degree field of aircraft detection, classification, and alerting system. DroneUp says it will employ this AI and computer vision tech, among other sensors, to ensure safety while it expands its footprint for drone delivery in the US.

More specifically, DroneUp will utilize numerous Casia G nodes to form a network covering large areas. These nodes will be colocated at the drone…