The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) on June 30 announced the publication of the Standardization Roadmap for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Version 2.0). The roadmap was developed by the Institute’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Standardization Collaborative (UASSC), a group established to coordinate and accelerate the development of the standards and conformity assessment programs needed to facilitate the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS, or drones) into the national airspace system of the United States.
More than 400 individuals from 250 public- and private-sector organizations supported the document’s development, including representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), other U.S. federal government agencies, standards developing organizations (SDOs), industry, academia, and others. A webinar with UASSC leaders providing an overview of the roadmap will be held on July 15 at 12 noon Eastern.
ANSI explains the release of the updated roadmap represents the culmination of the UASSC’s work over the last nine months to identify existing standards and standards in development, assess gaps, and make recommendations for priority areas where there is a perceived need for additional standardization including pre-standardization research and development (R&D).
Issues are addressed under the broad headings of airworthiness; flight operations; personnel training, qualifications, and certification; infrastructure inspections; environmental applications; commercial services; workplace safety; and public safety operations. The document also includes brief overviews of the UAS activities of the FAA, other U.S. federal government agencies, SDOs, and various industry groups.
Ultimately, ANSI explains the aim of the UASSC roadmap is to support the growth of the UAS market with an emphasis on civil, commercial, and public safety applications. While the UASSC does not itself develop standards, its roadmap recommendations are anticipated to see wide adoption by the standards community.
ANSI explains explains reason for undertaking the version 2.0 update was to expand the document’s content, engage subject matter experts not previously involved, identify potentially overlooked gaps, track progress by SDOs to address the recommendations contained in version 1.0, review priorities, and otherwise incorporate feedback. Of 78 issue areas examined, 71 open gaps were identified, meaning there is currently no published standard or specification that covers the issue in question.
Each gap includes a corresponding recommendation for action, along with a priority level for producing a standard and the name of a suggested organization(s) that can address the need. Of the open gaps, 47 have been identified as high priority, 21 as medium priority, and 3 as lower priority. In 53 cases, additional R&D is needed. Two version 1.0 gaps were closed, 3 were withdrawn, and 16 new gaps were added.
