Industry Standards Supporting Assured UAS Autonomy

May 5, 2021 | AUVSI News

As autonomous technologies become more integrated into the design and operation of the next generation of aircraft, industry standards can ensure system safety and help regulators to keep pace with evolving technology.

In a panel today at XPONENTIAL 2021, leaders from the FAA and industry discussed how consensus-based standards are critical in supporting the integration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

Building consensus-based standards

• As the UAS industry seeks to formulate standards, panelists shared several factors that will be key for building consensus:

• Standards should account for both risks and benefits in implementing an autonomous system into the aircraft.

• Standards should consider the role of the autonomous system, including how it will work with other systems in the aircraft or function in the broader aerospace environment.

• Standards should balance the complexity of the autonomous system with its maturity; more complex systems are difficult to understand, but the more mature a system is, the greater likelihood that it is well understood.

• Any standards that are issued should be approachable and useful to new entrants into the advanced aviation space.

 Assuring autonomy through standardsAfter achieving consensus among industry, standards can support concurrence with regulators and advance performance-based rulemakings. Performance-based regulations are critical for the UAS industry because they provide needed flexibility for evolving technologies.

As Mark Blanks, Head of Flight Operations and Wing told attendees, “Assured autonomy is key to scaling a new and dynamic model for aviation systems to interact with humans in a way we have never seen before.”

Drone delivery holds the possibility of revolutionizing businesses and our economy by providing near-real time access to goods. As drone delivery pilot programs grow, safety and information standards are critical to reaching greater autonomy and scalability.

Industry standards can start bringing capabilities like drone delivery into the existing regulatory environment in a meaningful way. Through the standards-setting process, industry defines for themselves and for regulators what is feasible, and regulators can use this information to determine appropriate pathways to approval.

Conversely, regulations without consensus-based standards could lead to a situation where viable systems are developed that cannot attain approval or with regulators setting pathways for approval that are not feasible to achieve.

Panelists emphasized that safety is most robust when multiple viewpoints and stakeholders are brought together, and that the autonomous future requires standards that provide assurance. As UAS technologies take off more and more, we can expect to see more industry-based standards and regulatory concurrence in the years to come.