First Draft of Standardization Roadmap to Be Reviewed September 20 in Washington, DC

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) announced today the opening of registration for the 2018 meeting of its Unmanned Aircraft Systems Standardization Collaborative (UASSC), scheduled for September 20 in Washington, DC.

Established in 2017, the UASSC is a cross-sector coordinating body whose primary deliverable will be a roadmap that identifies existing UAS (a.k.a. "drones") standards and those in development, defines where gaps exist, and recommends additional standardization activity to address the gaps. The group itself is not developing standards. The goal of the roadmap is to help clarify the current standards landscape, minimize duplication of effort among standards developers, inform standards participation resource allocation, and ultimately help to grow the UAS market. The document will include a proposed timeline for completion of recommended standards work and identify organizations that can perform the work. ANSI has convened stakeholders to produce similar roadmaps in other emerging technology areas such as additive manufacturing, energy efficiency in the built environment, and electric vehicles.

The purpose of the September 20 meeting is to review a first draft of the standardization roadmap, which is now in development and targeted for release a week prior to the meeting. The UASSC has four working groups (WGs) that examine standards issues across the spectrum of topical areas: WG1 covers airworthiness; WG2 covers general flight operations, personnel training, qualifications, and certification; WG3 covers flight operations for critical infrastructure inspections and commercial services; and WG4 covers flight operations for public safety. The working groups hold online meetings twice a month.

The UASSC meeting will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT on September 20 at the AAMC Learning Center, 655 K Street, NW, Room LC 200 (2nd Floor), Washington, DC, followed by a networking reception at the same location. Participation is open to UAS stakeholders that have operations in the United States. There is no fee to participate but advance registration is required. The draft agenda is also available and any updates will be posted on the UASSC website.

"As industry continues to develop technological solutions to support UAS integration, the standards community has an important role to play in codifying these solutions and promoting their widespread acceptance," said ANSI president and CEO S. Joe Bhatia. "The ANSI UASSC is working to coordinate the efforts of industry, standards developers, and government, leading to greater efficiencies and avoiding economic opportunity losses."

For more information, visit www.ansi.org/uassc.

About ANSI

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is made up of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. ANSI represents and serves the diverse interests of more than 270,000 companies and organizations and 30 million professionals worldwide.

The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). For more information, visit www.ansi.org.