Several studies indicate that the lack of harmonised standards is holding back the development of drone-related business in Europe. Therefore, it seems that a reliable regulatory and standardisation framework could boost the drone business.
AW-Drones moves from this premise: our scope is helping the European Aviation Safety Agency implementing coherent and interoperable global rules, technical standards and procedures for drones in the EU. As a result, this will enable safe and reliable civilian drones operations.
In order to asses the results that the project achieved in its (almost) first year of activity, we invited key stakeholders in the drone value chain to join the 1st AW-Drones workshop. We also involved them in discussing priorities and needs for European drones.
Highlights
Firstly, project coordinator Damiano Taurino (Deep Blue) introduced AW-Drones, explaining what we will do to help enabling safe drone operations in Europe. Then, Natale Di Rubbo (EASA) illustrated the status of drone regulation in the EU, and how we will help EASA draw new rules for drones. Later, Sebastian Cain (DLR) gave an overview of the technical standards we’ve collected, and of the classification framework that we applied to them. During a dedicated interactive session, participants had the chance to review our standards classification scheme, and propose new standards.
Next, Matteo Carta (EuroUSC-Italia) provided an overview of the mapping between collected standards and SORA requirements, detailing the methodology we developed to evaluate such standards. Again, participants reviewed the proposed assessment methodology in an interactive session. Then, Sara Gobbi (ASTM International) presented the UAS Standardization Collaborative (UASSC) initiative, highlighting similarities and differences with the work AW-Drones is performing. Finally, Natale Di Rubbo took the floor again to present the EUSCG, the European UAS Standards Coordination Group.
More than 50 experts joined us at EUROCONTROL premises. Many thanks to each of them for providing precious input to guide our future work! Special thanks to the EASA and EUROCONTROL experts, as well as to the Project Officers from the EC, who participated.
Presentations from the 1st AW-Drones workshop
- AW Drones project overview, Damiano Taurino (Deep Blue)
- EASA Regulatory status, Natale Di Rubbo (EASA)
- Drone standards state-of-the-art, Sebastian Cain (DLR)
- 1st Interactive session and feedback collection
- Overview of mapping between standards and SORA requirements, Matteo Carta (EuroUSC-Italia)
- 2nd Interactive session and feedback collection
- ANSI UAS Standardization Collaborative (UASSC) overview, Sara Gobbi (ASTM International)
- The European UAS Standards Coordination Group (EUSGC), Natale Di Rubbo (EASA)
- Final discussion and feedback
