Providing assurance of safe and effective operation of unmanned platforms

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI)  has published an industry code of conduct for unmanned aircraft system operations. It is based on safety, professionalism, and respect. This is a significant document, given the wave of safety-related so-called unmanned systems coming our way. It is short (a good thing) with a reasonable set of principles.

A good many domains start with a set of principles as the basis for assurance or regulation. The hard bit comes with working out the detail. I am sure that the AUVSI does not propose to re-invent the safety management wheel, but a number of schemes that have been expensive to implement, do not seem to be getting too much of a good press these days, so it would pay them to consider the detailed working before committing too heavily to a form of implementation.

Links with other groups such as say the robotics community and its events might make sense.

From my own point of view, it would be a delight to see the unmanned platform community adopt process standards as a form of leadership (process ownership drives process improvement) and assurance. Relevant standards include ISO/IEC 15288, ISO TS 18152, ISO 15504 Part 10.