The 4th User/Stakeholder Workshop on RPAS co-organised by EDA, ESA, EASA and EUROCONTROL will take place on November 29th, 2013, 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 as well as to RPAS stakeholders (user communities, industries, authorities) the outcomes of the joint ESA-EDA demonstration project DeSIRE and to inform and consult them on the follow on demonstration project (2nd Element).
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.
Final Agenda
The programme is intended to address at least the following topics:
- DeSIRE Final Presentation
- RPAS on-going and upcoming activities (DeSIRE 2)
- RPAS Standards & Regulations
- RPAS Applications & Operational Scenarios
The final agenda is available on the following link:
Registration and Logistics
The event will be free of charge. Registrations are now closed.
The workshop will take place in room Newton at the ESA ESTEC Centre, in Noordwijk (The Netherlands). For further information about how to get to estec, click here.
Background
The market for civilian RPAS applications is currently witnessing a tremendous increase, with several hundreds of civil RPAS operators already providing operational services and a number of companies investing on services based on RPAS. However, 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).
On 20 June 2013, the European RPAS Steering Group (ERSG) published a roadmap for the safe integration of civil RPAS into the European aviation system. This roadmap identifies all the issues to be addressed in the areas of regulation, research & technology and societal impact, and establishes a step-by-step approach to address them. Insertion of RPAS operating BRLOS under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) using Satellite Communications is foreseen to be established in 2018.
The increasing interest by users and Industry on RPAS complemented by satellites for provision of commercial and governmental added-value services has motivated the launch of a number of activities in this domain, including several feasibility studies and demonstration projects in the framework of the ESA Integrated Application Promotion (IAP) programme.
Since 2008, ESA and EDA have established close relationships for supporting the development of governmental/institutional & commercial services based on RPAS supported by satellites and integrated into non-segregated airspace. After two successful Feasibility Studies they defined a joint ESA-EDA demonstration roadmap on RPAS and initiated the first element of this roadmap, a joint demonstration project called .Demonstration of Satellites enabling the Insertion of RPAS in Europe (DeSIRE).. It is now their intention to pursue the implementation of this roadmap by initiating the second element, DeSIRE2.
With this and other projects to be initiated in this domain, ESA, EDA, EASA and EUROCONTROL intend to contribute to achieving the objectives set forth in the ERSG Regulatory Work Plan related to BRLOS operations under IFR using satellite communications and promote further the utilization of RPAS for civil and governmental applications.