Support among key stakeholders from the private and public sectors for American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to establish an Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) (most commonly known as drones) Standardization Collaborative (UASSC) was confirmed at a meeting convened by ANSI on May 19.
The meeting drew close to 70 participants representing more than 40 organizations including industry, trade associations, standards developing organizations, federal agencies, and academia.
The UASSC will work to coordinate and accelerate developing the standards and conformity assessment programs needed to facilitate the safe, mass integration of UAS into the United States national airspace system.
The collaborative will also focus on international coordination and adaptability, with the goal of fostering growth of the UAS market. Work will entail developing a standardization roadmap to identify existing standards and standards in development, identify gaps, recommend additional work, a timeline for completion, and organizations that can perform the work.
Initial focus areas for the group are expected to include UAS airworthiness, command and control systems, remote identification, flight operations, licensing, training, qualification, and certification, sense and avoid systems, and safety and risk management. The group is expected to hold its first meeting in the third quarter of 2017.
ANSI Standardization Collaboratives are established to support emerging technologies and national and global priorities by advancing cross-sector coordination in the development and compatibility of standards and conformance programs.