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Regulation and Testing of sUAS Designs

• There are several options available when it comes to certifying or regulating sUAS designs, but the federal government and the aviation community do not yet have the results needed to set airworthiness standards.
• Data of interest will include quantitative estimates of the probabilities of specific sUAS components failing in different ways, and of the resulting risk to people and property.
• Testing should allow analysts to estimate the damage that would be done to people and objects on the ground when aircraft crash.
• A risk-based system for sUAS design could focus more directly on areas of concern, such as harm to people and damage to property, particularly infrastructure.

Traffic Monitoring and Management

• Much of the current sUAS traffic operates in uncontrolled airspace, in areas where other types of air traffic do not operate, and in unpopulated areas. Although this traffic is not currently managed in any formal way, operators are interested in reducing risk by using systems to track and control this traffic.
• It is clear that if the current ATC system or a system modeled on the ATC system were used to manage sUAS traffic, the cost would likely be quite high and technical challenges would limit sUAS traffic density.
• The federal government is working with industry to develop UAS traffic management (UTM) systems. Stakeholders believe that there will be opportunities to apply research results from UTM work to improve the conventional ATC system.