ANSI kicks off effort to coordinate UAS standards

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has launched a collaborative effort to coordinate the development of standards and assessment programs needed to safely integrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the U.S. national airspace.

The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Standardization Collaborative (UASSC) will hold a kick-off meeting Sept. 28 in Washington, D.C. The group’s mission is to coordinate and accelerate the development of the standards and conformity assessment programs needed to facilitate the safe, mass integration of drones into the national airspace system.

The collaborative will also focus on international coordination and adaptability with the goal of fostering the growth of the UAS market. The group will not develop standards, but will work to develop a standardization roadmap over the course of a year to identify existing standards and standards in development, define where gaps exist and recommend additional work needed.

“ANSI looks forward to bringing together members of the public and private sectors for a discussion of standardization needs to support this exciting area of technology,” said Joe Bhatia, ANSI president and CEO. “The institute has a successful track record serving as a neutral facilitator to convene such collaboratives when there is a demonstrated need for coordination. That is the case with UAS where many standards developing organizations are involved.”

UASSC’s roadmap will include a proposed timeline for completion of the work and list organizations that can perform it. The objective is to describe the current standards landscape, articulate standardization needs, drive coordinated standards activity, minimize duplication of effort and inform resource allocation for standards participation.

The UASSC meeting will be from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EDT on Sept. 28 at the National Housing Center, 1201 15th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. It will be followed by a networking reception at the same location. Participation is open to UAS stakeholders that have operations in the United States.

ANSI’s membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations, representing more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide.