DRONE READINESS INDEX

How ready is your country for drone operations?

What is The Drone Readiness Index?

The Drone Readiness Index (DRI) is a one-of-a-kind metric that we have developed at DRONEII in order to compare national drone regulations. The DRI is our response to the many regulatory questions we frequently get from our clients. You’ve repeatedly asked us to evaluate countries side by side to provide an overview and understanding of how governments compare in tackling drone regulation. Below are the six core parameters we used to determine our rankings explained.

Why is the Drone Readiness Index Important?

The Drone Readiness Index is the first of its kind. It is the most complex metric-based comparison of national drone regulations, taking into account both qualitative and quantitative factors. Our analysts have worked hard, leveraging our regulatory expertise, on tying together the most important elements of good drone regulation in order to come up with a reliable metric for comparing these regulations.

 

If you’re a drone company looking to expand, the DRI can help point you in the right direction. If you’re a government examining or building your own drone regulations, the DRI can point you towards best practices. If you’re an investor, the DRI can help indicate where your drone investment has the best chances to succeed.

How Can I Get The Drone Readiness Index Rankings?

For a general ranking which looks at the six parameters outlined below, see our Drone Regulation Report which is the most comprehensive outline and analysis of drone regulations and contains the DRI rankings. For a more tailored comparison of regulations, that includes parameters specifically relevant to your company (be it a certain type of platform or flight that you focus on), contact us and for a fee we will produce a customised Drone Readiness Index for you.

What’s in a Good Drone Law?

There are several key ingredients to a good drone law. For a discussion of what the merits of these our, see our blog post ‘What’s in a Good Drone Law?. Below are the six key parameters we use to produce our Drone Readiness Index explained.

Applicability

This parameter is the bare minimum required of national regulations: that they be applicable or address drones in some way. It also measures whether drone regulations have been revised the past 24 months. This reflects the government and bureaucratic apparatus’ willingness and drive to address the emerging regulatory challenges in the commercial drone space.

Human Resources

This parameter measures the efficacy of regulations to streamline the process of recruitment and training of humans for work in the commercial drone industry. It measures what sort of infrastructure is in place for training and certifying pilots. The parameter also compares the numbers of drone pilots per capita in different countries.

Airspace Integration

This parameter measures whether and to what extent there have been coherent regulatory efforts at the integration of manned and unmanned airspaces in a given country.

Operational Limits

This parameter measures whether, where and how drones are able to operate. It compares countries by whether their regulations allow for e.g. BVLOS flights or not, at night or not, near people or not. The key reason that this element of the index is important is that it measures the headway a given country is making towards urban aerial mobility in the future.

Administrative Infrastructure

This parameter measures the administrative infrastructure in place to facilitate the responsible use of commercial drones: insurance requirements, drone registers, and standard procedures for acquiring flight permissions.

Social Acceptance

This parameter measures the consideration of data protection and privacy in drone regulations, considering them potential pain points for the commercial drone industry. Thus, a drone regulation which takes into account data protection and/or privacy issues is considered better as it accounts for potential reputation risks facing the industry.

Get in Touch to Discuss Your Very Own Drone Readiness Index

Do you operate an over-25kg platform? Or fly BVLOS? Our regulation experts can assess how ready your country is for your special operation and/or configuration.