CONSORTIUM PARTNERS' NEWS. THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "UNMANNED AIRCRAFT - 2018" COMPLETED IN MOSCOW
« BackThe key meeting of professionals in the field of unmanned aviation systems - the Fifth International Conference "Unmanned Aircraft – 2018" completed in Moscow.
"Unmanned Aircraft - 2018" is the largest annual international business forum for professional discussion of international trends and innovative solutions, issues of legal and technical regulation in the field of unmanned aviation systems.
Over 200 delegates took part in the Conference, including representatives of national authorities such as the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia), other national agencies; heads of industry associations of Russia, the Republic of Belarus, European countries; Russian and international developers and manufacturers of UAS and specialized equipment; UAS operators; representatives of scientific institutions, educational institutions, personnel training centers; media.
The Conference was opened by Anton Koren, the CEO of the Center for Strategic Development in Civil Aviation (AVIACENTER), who outlined the main trends in unmanned aviation system industry development.
The issues of implementation of the NTI AeroNet roadmap and completed projects covered by NTI government support were highlighted by Sergey Zhukov, Co-Head of the working group on development and implementation of AeroNet road map of the National Technology Initiative, President of AeroNet Association. The speaker mentioned that it's important to create a network of testing facilities in Russia for the development of the industry, and in the nearest future the first tender for creating such a facility will be announced by the NTI project office.
The AeroNet Association is making a substantial contribution to the development of the regulatory framework for unmanned aviation systems in Russia. Gleb Babintsev, the CEO of the Association, outlined relevant issues, and also mentioned that the key to the development is solving the issue of organizing joint flights of UAS including with manned aircraft in all airspace classes.
Gleb Bondarik, the Deputy Head of the Belarussian Federation of Unmanned Aviation, shared the experience of legal regulation of unmanned aircraft in the Republic of Belarus. The speaker mentioned that Belarus experts largely build on Russia's law enforcement practices for the improvement of the regulatory framework. It was also noted that the procedures of registration of UAS by authorities of the Republic of Belarus were passed to the Unmanned Aviation Federation. It allowed to create a register of operators, increase pilot liability and create mechanisms of liability insurance.
A special report on the international experience and approaches of different countries to integration of UAS in the civil airspace was presented by Sebastian Babiarz, Member of the Board of the Global UTM Association. The experience of UAS flight management in the USA, Europe and Japan that the presenter shared, stirred a lot of interest from the delegates.
The delegates were shown how an operational clearance in the segregated airspace with automatic routing was obtained in 2 minutes online, using a mobile application, in one of the developed countries.
Special attention was paid to issues of practical usage of UAS. Reports on existing and potential ways of using UAS in the public sector were presented within this session, such as: development and usage of unmanned aircraft by EMERCOM of Russia, practical usage experience in metropolitan areas and sparsely populated regions, creating digital models of regions, unmanned cargo transport, using UAS in agriculture and FEC.
The Conference also covered topical issues of education and human resource policy in unmanned aircraft industry, civil liability insurance of UAS owners; a large block of the Conference agenda was devoted to innovative Russian and international products from developers and suppliers of UAS, equipment and IT solutions, current satellite and navigation technologies.
A strategic session was held as part of the Conference for preparing suggestions to improve the legislation in the area of unmanned aviation, with the involvement of unmanned aviation industry associations and national authorities. The Strategic session was moderated by the specialists of AVIACENTER and AeroNet Association.
Anton Koren, the CEO of the Center for Strategic Development in Civil Aviation (AVIACENTER), covered the results of the Strategic session, noting that the Conference participants suggest changes to be made to the current legislation to provide additional opportunities for market development.
Participants of the Strategic session identified a range of key issues holding back the development and operations of UAS in Russia, as well as their solutions, among which are:
A need to create conditions for official registration of UAS of up to 30 kg. The absence of a registration number on a UAS is often regarded by the regulatory authorities as breaking airspace regulations (ASR), which in practice often leads to detention of an external pilot together with the UAS, even if there is an ASR permit from the UATMS authorities. To solve this issue, it's proposed to develop a Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation "On approval of the procedure for accounting of civil unmanned aircraft with maximum take-off mass from 0.25 kg to 30 kg inclusive".
Owners of UAS over 30 kg must undergo an expensive registration procedure for UAS over 30 kg in the National Aircraft Registry. When an aircraft must be registered in the National Aircraft Registry, registering the rights for the aircraft has to be carried out twice. It's proposed to exclude the separate procedure of unmanned civil aircraft registration (as an independent procedure) by combining the legally significant action with the procedure of government registration of such aircraft in the National Civil Aircraft Registry of the Russian Federation. To do so, it's necessary to adopt a Federal law on amendments to the Federal law "About the State registration of rights for aircraft and deals with them" dated 14 March 2009 No 31-ФЗ.
Persons conducting aviation works for a customer, can't obtain an operator certificate, as requirements for such persons are not established. That is why it is in fact impossible to legally use UAS under 30 kg for commercial purposes. Delegates of the Conference propose to determine the requirements and procedures for confirming compliance with national aviation rules requirements of legal entities, private entrepreneurs performing commercial air service using unmanned aviation systems, by preparing and issuing an Order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation "On amendments to the Federal aviation rules "Requirements to carrying out obligatory certification of private individuals, legal entities performing aviation works. Certification procedure", approved by the Order of the Ministry of Transport of Russia dated 23 December 2009 No 249 and the Order of the Ministry of Transport of Russia "On making amendments to the Administrative procedure of the Federal air transport agency for providing a government service for organization and carrying out of mandatory certification of legal entities and private individuals performing aviation works, approved by the Order of the Ministry of Transport of Russia dated 13 March 2013 No. 86".
One of the pressing issues is insuring the liability of owners and operators of UAS, since there is no procedure for UAS identification, pilot requirements, procedure of flight accident documentation, no statistical data has been accumulated. To solve the problem, the participants propose to prescribe the procedure for ensuring the liability of the owner of an unmanned civil aircraft towards third parties for causing harm during UAS operations, towards aviation works customer for compensation for harm done due to carrying out aviation works, towards passengers and cargo owners during UAS commercial air service for causing harm to life and health, baggage, for shortage or damage to cargo. To do so, it's necessary to approve a federal law "On making amendments to the Air Code of the Russian Federation", a federal law "On mandatory insurance of liability of legal entities and private entrepreneurs conducting activities involving flight operation of unmanned aviation systems, aviation works, commercial air service using unmanned aviation systems", an Order of the Government of the Russian Federation "On making amendments to the Rules of investigation of flight accidents and incidents involving civil aircraft in Russian Federation, adopted by the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 18 June 1998 No. 609"
Developers and manufacturers of unmanned aircraft cannot obtain a certificate of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and certify their UAS since there is no certification basis, and requirements for developers and manufacturers has not been established. They must obtain a license for their activities, and this duplicates similar procedures. The participants proposed to determine requirements and the procedure for confirmation of compliance with requirements of Federal aviation regulations of legal entities conducting the development and manufacturing of unmanned aviation systems including unmanned aircraft with maximum take-off weight over 30 kg and their elements, to establish forms and procedure of issuing a document confirming compliance, as well as to optimize procedures of licensing the development, manufacturing, testing and repair of unmanned aviation systems.
Delegates of the Conference and participants of the Strategic session also noted that it is now not possible to quickly train the required number of qualified personnel for the UAS market: the adopted FSES for a UAS operator prescribes education on the basis of SVE and higher educational facility for almost 4 years, which is excessive and involves a need for an external pilot to study unnecessary subjects and irrelevant functions. This problem is proposed to be solved through adopting a professional standard "Operator of unmanned aviation systems including a single or multiple unmanned civil aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of 30 kg and less" and developing educational programs on the basis of the professional standards to train external pilots within reasonable time determined by existing training centers of developers and manufacturers of UAS.
All the proposals developed during the Fifth International Conference "Unmanned Aircraft – 2018" and the Strategic Session will be passed to the Government of the Russian Federation and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
During the Conference an exhibition was held, presenting the leading developers and suppliers of UAS, equipment and IT solutions, navigation technologies.
The Conference was hosted by the Center for Strategic Development in Civil Aviation (AVIACENTER).
The Conference was organized under the auspices and with participation of national authorities, AeroNet Association, Global UTM Association, Siberian Association of Unmanned Technologies, the leading scientific research organizations.
Title media partner – the official newspaper of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, Transport of Russia.
Title media portal – RUSSIANDRONE.RU.
The next, Sixth International Conference "Unmanned Aircraft - 2019" will take place in Moscow on 18-19 April 2019.