Concept for a U-Space Compliant UAS-Flight Authorization Service: The Flight Authorization and Activation Process

The safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into urban airspace is one of the most important challenges in establishing UAS Traffic Management (UTM). The term U-space, which evolved from European UTM research projects, encompasses a set of services and procedures designed to enable the safe, efficient and sustainable integration of UAS into urban airspace. These services have not yet been sufficiently described, neither legally nor technically. One of these services is the UAS flight authorization service (U-FAS), which is intended to coordinate and manage flight authorization requests during the strategic planning phase of UAS flights. In a U-space, UAS operators are required to request flight authorization and activation from the UAS service provider (USSP) to obtain an approval for UAS operations in U-space airspace. By means of this flight authorization process, UAS integration is intended to be compliant with safety and regulatory requirements. Existing process models have addressed this challenge but are neither comprehensive enough nor compatible with the European legislation, the U-space regulation. This paper presents a BPMN-based workflow concept for a U-space compliant flight authorization and activation process that takes into account the minimum requirements for a UAS flight authorization service of current U-space frameworks. The focus in this paper is on the complete end-to-end process model from the submission of a flight authorization request to the launch of the UAS.