O.R.C.U.S. risk assessment tool for operations of light UAS above Germany

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA’s) Prototype Regulation on Unmanned Aircraft Operation and introduce the tool Operational Risk Considerations for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (O.R.C.U.S.). In contrast to existing airworthiness regulations for civil manned aircraft, EASA’s approach is focussed on flight operations and not aircraft, a significant change for the domain of civil airworthiness. Design/methodology/approach O.R.C.U.S. is a software risk analysis tool developed by the corresponding author. It encompasses all relevant factors for flight operations of light Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) above populated areas in Germany. The tool generates predictions of possible fatalities in the event of a light Unmanned Aircraft crash through the use of validated statistics and considering the time and location of a mission. An example mission, including a discussion of the results, is provided to demonstrate and discuss the capabilities of O.R.C.U.S. Findings EASA’s Prototype Regulation on Unmanned Aircraft Operation makes a sound risk assessment of UAS flight operations indispensable. O.R.C.U.S. is able to increase risk awareness for operators and airworthiness authorities even if only less to none information about the UAS is available, supporting the possible approval of such an operation. Originality/value In this paper, O.R.C.U.S. is presented for the first time. O.R.C.U.S. can provide risk estimations for UAS operations in Germany, even if only minimum information about the UAS is available. In contrast to other tools, O.R.C.U.S. offers a unique risk prediction by combining aspects of the flying Unmanned Aircraft as well as the overflown area.