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Elevate your drone operations with Weather-Optimized flight
Smart Flight™ is an AI-powered, weather-optimized UAV autonomy platform designed to transform your drone operations. It combines automated mission planning and real-time adaptive path adjustments to help you fly longer, faster, and safer. While accounting for micro-weather patterns, terrain data, and airspace conditions, Smart Flight™ actively leverages wind energy — using techniques like autonomous soaring — to enable drones to stay airborne up to eight times longer, cut transit times by 30%, and unlock new mission possibilities.
Whether you’re deploying drones for firefighting, security, delivery, or search and rescue, Smart Flight is built to adapt. It’s compatible with multiple drone types — fixed wing, VTOL, single rotor, and multi-rotor — making it a truly drone-agnostic solution. The platform supports both decision support for piloted operations and full decision-making autonomy, depending on your needs.
By reducing reliance on experienced pilots and increasing flight efficiency, Smart Flight delivers unmatched value for professionals looking to scale their operations. It’s the only solution on the market that harnesses wind energy to significantly extend flight durations and improve cost-effectiveness. If you need autonomous drone software that redefines performance and reliability, Smart Flight offers the perfect blend of innovation and practicality.
Smart Flight™ also enables collaborative swarming, allowing multiple drones to work together autonomously to complete complex missions with greater efficiency. By dynamically coordinating flight paths, optimizing task distribution, and leveraging real-time weather data, Smart Flight ensures that drone teams operate seamlessly — even in challenging environments. Whether it’s wide-area surveillance, disaster response, or precision mapping, Smart Flight’s AI-driven swarming capabilities enhance coverage, resilience, and mission success.
Explore the key features of Smart Flight
Smart Flight™ revolutionizes autonomous drone software by combining AI-powered weather insights, mission planning, and real-time flight optimizations. Below are three standout features that set Smart Flight apart, each designed to help you maximize flight time, enhance safety, and reduce operational costs.
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High-resolution forecasting (30m scale).
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Better accuracy at lower altitudes compared to standard forecasts.
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Predicts not just when it’s safe to fly, but when it’s optimal.
Feature 1: Micro-Weather Forecast
Overview
Smart Flight’s Micro-Weather Forecast delivers high resolution, terrain-aware weather insights to inform your flight decisions. Instead of relying on general forecasts, Smart Flight pinpoints localized wind patterns, turbulence, and other atmospheric conditions that can significantly impact drone operations. This more extensive and exact forecast ensures that you fly at the safest and most optimal times, reducing risk and maximizing operational uptime.
Benefits
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Increase operational uptime: Identify every safe flight window to keep drones in the air more often.
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Reduce pilot workload: Eliminate frequent manual weather checks and planning tasks.
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Enhance safety: Make confident go/no-go decisions based on hyper-accurate forecasts.
What makes it different
How to use it
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Access the micro-weather features via Smart Flight’s web app.
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Integrate with your existing workflows using our Weather Check API.
Feature 2: Mission Planning Optimization
Smart Flight’s Mission Planning Optimization dynamically generates flight routes by factoring in real-time and forecasted weather, your drone’s unique performance parameters, and airspace constraints. The system intelligently avoids adverse conditions, no-fly zones, and high-risk areas while strategically leveraging favorable winds to enhance efficiency.
Overview
Whether prioritizing speed, energy conservation, or mission-specific objectives, Smart Flight optimizes every route to align with your operational needs. This reduces manual workload, accelerates planning, and provides a scalable solution for growing drone fleets. It even helps you stay compliant with regulations set by the FAA in the United States and Transport Canada in Canada.
Benefits
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Save time: Eliminate the need for manual flight path creation and reduce operator workload.
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Fly faster, fly longer: Achieve up to 30% faster transit or save 30% in energy to extend flight durations — no extra hardware required.
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Improve safety: Ensure routes respect your drone’s performance limits and stay within designated corridors.
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Lower costs: Minimize battery swaps, wear and tear, and overall maintenance expenses.
What makes it different
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4D route optimization: Factors in altitude, geography, time, and aircraft model to find the best path.
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Integrates hyper-detailed weather data to leverage favourable winds and avoid harsh conditions.
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Scales seamlessly from single-drone to full-fleet operations.
How to use it
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Utilize our cloud-based app directly or integrate mission planning into your existing systems via our cloud-based API.
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Run local installations alongside your Ground Control Station (GCS) if you need offline capabilities.
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Compatible with fixed wing, VTOL, single rotor, and multi-rotor drones.
Feature 3: In-Flight Optimization
Smart Flight, our autonomous drone software, optimizes performance mid-flight by continuously adapting to real-time wind conditions, maximizing efficiency and endurance. During flight, it dynamically adjusts flight path, airspeed, and altitude based on the drone’s performance model and immediate environment.
Overview
Benefits
Every phase of the mission is optimized while respecting operational constraints such as sensor limits, no-fly zones, and route corridors. For fixed-wing and fixed-wing VTOL platforms, Smart Flight enables autonomous soaring by harnessing atmospheric energy from thermals, significantly extending flight time and enhancing overall efficiency.
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8X longer flight times: Extend time on station by harnessing wind energy.
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Reduced operational overhead: Fewer battery swaps and less downtime translate to lower costs.
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Access new mission profiles: Tackle long-range or long-endurance tasks that were previously out of reach.
What makes it different
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Actively exploits thermals and other wind patterns for extreme endurance.
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Facilitates collaborative swarm operations, allowing a single operator to manage multiple drones efficiently.
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Adjusts to real-time weather conditions for improved performance and enhanced safety.
How to use it
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We will configure the aircraft performance model for your drone.
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Deploy Smart Flight on your drone’s onboard companion computer.
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Our adaptable software architecture comes with adapters to any flight control system, including PX4, ArduPilot, or others.
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Once in-flight, Smart Flight will automatically send flight commands to your flight controller to optimize flight parameters based on real-time sensor data.
Real-World applications for commercial and defense missions
Commercial operations
In commercial environments, Smart Flight™ excels at coordinating complex drone activities across a variety of industries. Whether you’re focusing on emergency response, surveillance, search and rescue, logistics, or long linear infrastructure inspection, our drone flying software ensures every flight is conducted with optimized routes based on real-time data.
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First Response: Smart Flight helps first responders and their drones arrive faster, enhance situational awareness, and reduce operator workload, enabling quicker, more informed decisions in critical situations.
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Surveillance (Border, Maritime, Security): Smart Flight enables surveillance drones to stay airborne for longer, maximizing time over vital assets to ensure mission success.
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Search and Rescue: Smart Flight enables search and rescue drones to cover more ground, navigate tough terrain, and improve the chances of finding missing persons.
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Logistics: From last-mile delivery to high-volume cargo transport, our autonomous drone software boosts reliability, speeds up deliveries, and maximizes fleet efficiency for delivery drones.
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Firefighting: Smart Flight helps firefighting drones quickly assess fires, track their spread, and provide real-time aerial intelligence, enabling faster, safer, and more effective response.
By leveraging Smart Flight’s advanced UAV software, commercial operators can significantly reduce costs, boost mission success rates, and scale up deployments without adding complexity.
Defense operations
Defense missions demand a high level of precision and reliability — areas where Smart Flight truly shines. Built on advanced autonomy and micro-weather awareness, Smart Flight optimizes flight paths to enhance the performance of AI military drones, helping defense teams achieve their objectives even in the most challenging conditions.
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ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance): Smart Flight enables ISTAR drones to reach targets faster, remain on station longer, and extend operational reach.
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Security: Whether on a military base or in contested territory, drones powered by Smart Flight can patrol vast perimeters longer, adapt to changing conditions, and enhance security.
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Front Line Resupply: Smart Flight accelerates time-sensitive deliveries of medical supplies, equipment, and rations by reducing flight time and risk while easing the burden on personnel in hazardous environments.
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Tactical Support: From orchestrating drone swarms to supporting ground units, Smart Flight enables reliable, efficient operations in volatile environments.
Smart Flight stands out as autonomous drone software that meets and exceeds the rigorous demands of defense applications. By tapping into its real-time weather optimization and mission planning features, defense teams can conduct safer, more efficient missions that deliver actionable results where they’re needed most.
Addressing common questions and concerns
Even the most advanced UAV software can raise questions as you integrate it into your workflow. Below are some typical questions operators have about Smart Flight™, along with clear answers to guide your decision.
1. What’s the difference between Smart Flight and other solutions?
Unlike conventional drone flying software that may offer only basic route planning or simple weather checks, Smart Flight actively harnesses wind energy to significantly extend flight times, speed up transit, and adjust flight paths on the go to keep your drone safe. By combining micro-weather forecasting, mission planning, and in-flight optimization, Smart Flight stands out as a complete, next-generation drone AI software platform.
2. Will Smart Flight work for my drone?
Yes. Smart Flight is fully drone-agnostic, meaning it supports various drone types — fixed wing, multi-rotor, single rotor, and VTOL. We tailor the software to your drone’s specific performance model, so you can use it seamlessly regardless of size or configuration.
3. Is Smart Flight a hardware and software solution?
Smart Flight is software-only and uses data from sensors that are already present on most drones. If you plan to run Smart Flight directly on your aircraft, you’ll need a companion computer. However, there’s no additional proprietary hardware you must purchase from us.
4. Does Smart Flight run on the ground or on my drone?
Mission planning and weather forecasting typically run in the cloud or on a ground control station, while in-flight optimization runs onboard the drone’s companion computer. This setup ensures you have the most accurate data before takeoff and during flight.
5. What if I’m interested in only one of the capabilities, not all of them?
Smart Flight is modular by design. You can select the features that suit your specific operational needs — whether that’s micro-weather analysis, mission planning optimization, or in-flight autonomy — without having to adopt the entire suite.
6. Is Smart Flight still useful if my missions have strict corridors and altitude restrictions?
Absolutely. Smart Flight takes all mission constraints — such as corridors, no-fly zones, and altitude restrictions — into account when planning and optimizing flight paths. If you have additional requirements not mentioned here, we can work with you to integrate them into the system.
7. What makes your weather data different from standard forecasts?
Shearwater’s weather forecasting stands apart from conventional models by offering significantly higher accuracy, especially at low altitudes where traditional forecasts often fall short. Unlike standard weather reports that provide broad conditions, Shearwater’s Smart Flight system delivers high-resolution weather data — down to 30 meters — using proprietary technology. This precise insight not only ensures safe flight operations but also identifies optimal conditions, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of UAV operations.
Ready to experience Smart Flight? Your next steps
You’ve explored the features, benefits, and real-world use cases of Smart Flight™ — now it’s time to see these innovations in action. Whether you’re most interested in micro-weather forecasting, mission planning optimization, or in-flight autonomy, our platform is designed to fit seamlessly into your workflow.
Ready to experience the benefits firsthand? We’ll guide you through a live demonstration tailored to your unique operational requirements. Discover how autonomous drone software can help you achieve mission success faster and more affordably.