After doubling its sales and manufacturing capabilities, Intellisense Systems has built and shipped the 2,000th unit of its patented, all-in-one Micro Weather Station.
In just four years of operations, Intellisense Systems, Inc. manufactured and shipped one thousand units of the Micro Weather Station (MWS®), the patented, wireless, all-in-one weather station that reports over 20 environmental parameters.
Now, it has taken less than two years for Intellisense to reach its next milestone.
Intellisense recently built and shipped the 2,000th MWS from its production facility in Torrance, California. The landmark weather station was an MWS®–C600 purchased by an unmanned aerial systems (UAS) service provider that specializes in drone deliveries. The C600 is the ideal weather-monitoring solution for UAS applications because it reports key weather data within the nearest mile. Because UAS pilots cannot fully rely on weather observations that are collected far away from their operations, they need the most proximate weather conditions to ensure successful flights.
The C600 monitors and reports approximately 28 parameters, including cloud ceiling height, visibility, dust accumulation, and lightning distance/frequency. Thanks to its cloud-based data storage, integrated solar power system, and built-in battery pack, the C600 can report weather conditions in the world’s most remote or austere areas for extended periods of time. These capabilities support UAS flights beyond the visual line of sight and enable important services like agriculture, landscape mapping, surveillance, and parcel deliveries.
For the engineers at Intellisense, it has been an incredible journey to 2,000 Micro Weather Stations. Development of the MWS started in 2010 when the United States Department of Defense (DoD) sought competitive solicitations for a discreet, ruggedized, and wireless environmental monitor that could report weather conditions in remote or denied terrain. These observations were critical for keeping soldiers and personnel safe in the field and bolstering mission success. In 2021, Intellisense published a case study detailing the challenges of attaining weather data in such remote areas, and how an all-in-one solution like the MWS could help address those needs.
The MWS proved to be so successful that it has achieved full commercialization in the DoD’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Intellisense currently produces five models of the MWS for military and commercial customers. The Military Series of the MWS is now the DoD’s top choice for tactical weather stations, having been used to improve situational awareness during ground operations and enable aircraft takeoffs and landings on improvised runways. The MWS also complies with standards for U.S.-sourced parts and susceptibility requirements against electromagnetic interference.
The MWS Commercial Series, meanwhile, features the same ruggedized construction as the Military Series with different weather-monitoring and communications capabilities to be more cost-effective and serve a greater variety of applications, including general aviation, search-and-rescue, construction, and logistics. Commercial versions of the MWS make weather data more accessible to a broader range of customers, thus improving operational efficiency and ensuring the safety of people and personnel in dozens of industries and sectors.
Following this latest achievement, Intellisense is working hard to make the MWS even more accurate, robust, and cost-effective for both military and commercial customers. With these development goals in mind, the company hopes to hit its next production milestone even sooner.
Learn more about the innovative, rugged, and highly accurate MWS here.