Defining The Drone Ecosystem
Peter van Blyenburgh
Founder - PRO-UAS (UAS-related strategic consultancy & publishing)
The non-military Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) / Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) / Drone community, as well as the regulatory authorities and the press, make suppositions concerning the drone market (the market sectors involved), as well as the flight operations actually taking place in these market sectors.
These suppositions are not based on inputs received from qualified and quantifiable drone operator community members. In addition, there are no commonly accepted definitions of the terms used to identify the market sectors and flight operations, which adds to the confusion.
As a consequence, the information on the current & future drone markets that is getting out to industry (manufacturers & operators), potential customers & investors, policy makers, regulatory authorities, standards producing organisations, as well as the general public, is not necessarily correct.
The Market Sector and Flight Mission segmentation used in the ‘‘Global UAS OPS’’ and ‘‘UAS OPS’’ surveys have as purpose to contribute to correcting this situation, by proposing terminology for referring to the non-military drone market (commercial & non-commercial). The surveys will map this market, identify it to the concerned stakeholder communities, and will obtain information on its state of readiness relative to the implementation of upcoming new regulation.
Notes:
The Market Sector & Flight Mission reference documents are posted in English, French, German & Spanish.
“Global UAS OPS” is an international survey on drone operations (current & upcoming). It addresses the international Drone Operator community (all countries outside of Europe). This survey, as well as it’s supporting reference documents, is available is available in English, French & Spanish.
‘‘UAS OPS’’ is a European survey on drone operations (current & upcoming) that addresses the European Drone Operator community. This survey, as well as it’s supporting reference documents, is available in English, French, German & Spanish); it is conducted in the framework of the AW-Drones Project.