On September 16 2019, the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) coordinated a demonstration of the ASTM WK65041 (UAS Remote ID) standard in collaboration with six industry participants, members of the Swiss U-Space Implementation (SUSI) program: ANRA Technologies, Airmap, Involi, Orbitalize, skyguide, and Wing.
The event was a success. All involved companies delivered a solid performance. Our learning will prove useful in our efforts to drive forward the regulatory framework related to the safe and secure integration of drones in the national airspace. The networked Remote-ID solution in particular proved fully satisfactory. Data exchange among participants worked flawlessly, the display providers were able to show a fully consistent picture of the airspace. The broadcast solution also worked as expected in the limits currently defined by the standard. The operationalization of the standard’s broadcast portion remains, however, an open question as the proposed solutions, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, have clear limitations. The demonstration also highlighted the need to better quantify the limitations and the performance of the broadcast solution.
On the regulatory side, FOCA is now equipped to start working on an onboarding and monitoring process in collaboration with SUSI members interested in providing networked Remote ID services.