Diverse drone identification rulemaking committee begins work

Whose drone is that? It’s a critical question for law enforcement and homeland security when an unmanned aircraft (UAS) appears to be flying in an unsafe manner or where it’s not supposed to fly.

Currently, there are no established requirements or voluntary standards for electrically broadcasting information to identify an unmanned aircraft while it’s in the air. To help protect the public and the National Airspace System from these “rogue” drones, the FAA is setting up a new Aviation Rulemaking Committee (PDF) that will help the agency create standards for remotely identifying and tracking unmanned aircraft during operations. The rulemaking committee will hold its first meeting June 21-23 in Washington, DC.

The group’s membership (PDF) represents a diverse variety of stakeholders, including the unmanned aircraft industry, the aviation community and industry member organizations, manufacturers, researchers, and standards groups. The rulemaking committee will have several major tasks to:

• Identify, categorize and recommend available and emerging technologies for the remote identification and tracking of UAS.
• Identify requirements for meeting the security and public safety needs of law enforcement, homeland defense, and national security communities for remote identification and tracking.
• Evaluate the feasibility and affordability of the available technical solutions, and determine how well they address the needs of law enforcement and air traffic control communities.

Eventually the recommendations it produces could help pave the way for drone flights over people and beyond visual line of sight.

The first meeting of the UAS Identification and Tracking Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) on June 21-23 advanced key policies of concern to the FAA, industry and law enforcement.

During this initial meeting, the ARC considered issues such as existing regulations applicable to drone identification and tracking, air traffic management for drones, concerns and authorities of local law enforcement, and potential legal considerations. The group developed some preliminary questions and identification parameters, and reviewed a sample of existing identification technologies.  

The group’s membership (PDF) represents a diverse variety of stakeholders, including the unmanned aircraft industry, the aviation community and industry member organizations, manufacturers, researchers, standards groups, and local law enforcement and other officials.

The ARC will continue to meet as necessary to develop solutions that function at federal, state, and local levels. The ARC’s next meeting is planned for July 18-19, 2017.