5th User/Stakeholder Workshop on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS)

ESA, EDA, EUROCONTROL and EASA are pleased to announce the 5^th User/Stakeholder Workshop on RPAS on May 21^st, 2015, at the ESA ESTEC Centre, in Noordwijk (The Netherlands).

Key Objectives of the Workshop

The main objectives of the workshop are to present to ESA and EDA Member States representatives as well as to European RPAS stakeholders (user communities, industries, authorities) the preliminary findings of the 2^nd element of the joint ESA-EDA RPAS demonstration initiative (DeSIRE2) and to inform them on other EDA and ESA RPAS related activities.

Who should attend

Participation is particularly encouraged from ESA and EDA (participating) Member States, users, service providers, technology providers and policy makers who are willing to get informed and involved in the RPAS domain. Attendees should have an interest in enhancing RPAS capabilities through the combination with space systems for air traffic insertion and for applications such as maritime surveillance and border control, environmental monitoring, critical infrastructure inspection, law enforcement and crisis management.

Draft Agenda

The programme is intended to address at least the following topics:

• Joint EDA-ESA current project DeSIRE2 and next steps of the initiative
• RPAS activities (EDA MIDCAS and ERA projects, ESA RPAS-related application projects)
• RPAS Standards & ATM Integration (EASA and Eurocontrol contributions)
• RPAS Applications & Operational Scenarios

Background

Following the market urgency for solutions, the European Space Agency through the Integrated Application Promotion (IAP) programme and the European Defence Agency have launched in recent years numerous studies and projects supporting the development of services and technologies in the RPAS domain.

It appears though that there are still regulatory barriers hampering RPAS-based services take-up and in particular for those applications requiring the RPA to fly Beyond Radio Line of Sight (BRLOS).

Specifically in this context, space assets are instrumental for complementing RPAS and delivering added-value services in a large variety of sectors and markets. This is why ESA and EDA have established a partnership for supporting the development of governmental/institutional & commercial services based on RPAS complemented by satellites and integrated into non-segregated airspace.

Based on the positive outcomes of the feasibility studies IDEAS and SINUE completed in 2010, the two Agencies have conducted in cooperation with Eurocontrol and EASA the    “Demonstration of Satellites enabling the Insertion of RPAS in Europe” DeSiRE project (http://iap.esa.int/projects/security/DeSIRE). DeSIRE has provided an initial demonstration of the suitability of satellite communications to provide safe and secure links for the command and control of the RPAS flying BRLOS in non-segregated airspace to provide maritime surveillance services.

The follow-on project DeSIRE-2, initiated in 2014, will further contribute to the definition of the EU regulatory landscape, achieving the objectives set forth in the European RPAS Steering Group Regulatory Work Plan. The project will also promote further the utilization of RPAS for civil and governmental applications. Both DeSIRE and DeSIRE2 will provide important input elements to the activities envisaged in the SJU workplan on RPAS.

ESA IAP has furthermore initiated more than 10 additional RPAS projects supporting Industry in delivering services answering to the needs of many User communities, in the domains of maritime surveillance, energy, logistics, agriculture and emergency response. EDA has recently completed the project MIDCAS, developing a baseline solution for the "Unmanned Aircraft System Mid-air Collision Avoidance Function" acceptable by the manned aviation, and has started the project ERA for developing automatic RPAS take-off and landing functions.

The results of these projects, together with the new initiatives in this domain planned by ESA, EDA, Eurocontrol and EASA, are expected to provide in the next years a boost to the emergence of RPAS-based services in Europe and a consolidation of the regulatory landscape.