My reasons for my candidacy are the following:
- Dronecode is in a unique position to facilitate contributions to open-source usage within the drone-industry in general, but also to play a key-role in the necessary standardization of interfaces across the different players and stakeholders to enable future regulatory improvements in order to enable more complex & autonomous missions at scale.
- I am interested in accelerating the timeline for wide adoption of standard-interfaces for UTM functionalities like remote-identification, airspace-authorization, restriction-management, traffic-services, and others to enable those technologies to get accepted by safety-agencies as measures of risk-mitigation and assist in propelling the industry forward. Through our contributions to the UTM-platform-sdk and integrations of AirMap UTM services into QGC, we intend to make it very easy for the Dronecode-community to utlitze UTM services in a standardized way.
- Furthermore, within the context of working with the FAA and other regulatory bodies like EASA or the Swiss FOCA, the path of enabling a future certification of the UAS for specific operations that require waivers is of high significance. This can be achieved by collaborating around open-software, -interfaces and -procedures to achieve critical weight in discussions with regulators. AirMap intends to fully support those efforts, by both collaborating in the creation of test-cases, procedures and open-interfaces, as well as through advocating for such solutions in discussions with law-makers and other applicable standardization bodies.
Qualifications
The following is a list of my recent accomplishments in the industry, a link to my LinkedIn and proof of my previous involvement in the Dronecode community.
- AirMap was elected board member since 2017, I inherited the board-seat from my predecessor at AirMap in April 2018
- I led the product development internally at AirMat the ultimately led to the publication of UTM services within QGC for Airspace Authorization, Airspace Maps, Traffic-Alerts and the Terrain-/Elevation Data
- Through collaboration with Dronecode-members, FAA, EASA and the Swiss FOCA contributed to the establishment of a workstream that ultimately will lead into the possibility to create certified sUAS based on the Dronecode-Stack with the possibility to obtain waivers for access to airspace for complex/autonomous missions.
- I contributed to the World Economic Forum’s Advanced Drone Operations Toolkit with explaining how UTM-services, such as the ones integrated into PX4 and QGC, can enable complex drone operations like BVLOS package delivery
About AirMap
My employer AirMap has agreed to sponsor my nomination and was recently active in the community with those activities:
- AirMap contributed integrations of UTM services to QGC and open-sourced its platform-sdk to with a Dronecode-compatible license (link to pr)
- AirMap arranged for QGC and PX4-based drones to participate in two international-scale UTM/Space demonstrations events in Switzerland, with high media attention created from the Swiss ANSP skyguide and the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation
- AirMap frequently supports Dronecode through our social media channels
- AirMap recently joined forces with Honeywell and has further engagements with many members of the Dronecode community, such as 3DR, Auterion, Wingtra, Yuneec, Dronedeploy, Sony, Flarm and others to enable UTM/U-space services to enable safe integration of drones into the airspace system.