Overview

The lack of clear standards is holding back the development of drone-related business, both at a global level and in Europe. Several studies and surveys (as for instance the European Drones Outlook Study, issued by SESAR) identify a reliable regulatory and standardisation framework as one of the main potential boosters for the drone business. Nevertheless, to foster the growth of a safe drone usage, there is a need to implement coherent and interoperable global standards. The European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme funded AW-Drones to tackle these issues. AW-Drones facilitates the on-going European Union rulemaking process for the definition of rules, technical standards and procedures for civilian drones to enable safe, environmentally sound and reliable operations in the EU. This target will be achieved through 2 sub-goals: Providing a repository of “best practices” to support EASA’s regulatory process: the project will make available an Open Repository of “best practices” to support the European Aviation Safety Agency’s and the European Commission’s rulemaking process. Proposing and validating a well-reasoned set of technical standards for operations, appropriate for all relevant categories of drones: AW-Drones will also contribute to the identification and validation of a well-reasoned set of technical standards for operations, appropriate for all categories of drones. These standards will be presented into an easy-to-navigate knowledge platform, open to all stakeholders.