Will Be Proposed During A Symposium Held In Montreal

The ICAO is backing an effort to create a single global drone registry with a goal of the adoption of common rules for flying and tracking UAVs.

The idea will be discussed at a symposium planned for Sept. 22-23 in Montreal, according to a report from Reuters. Stephen Creamer, director of ICAO's Air Navigation Bureau, said that the single database would become a one-stop-shop to remotely identify and track drones and their operators.

The ICAO could become the operator of such a database. However, it is likely that users would balk at such a registry. The FAA's database was successfully challenged by a drone user earlier this year, and it was deemed to be illegal under current FAA regulations.

The symposium will also cover issues such as geofencing, which is designed to prevent drones from flying in areas where they are restricted or prohibited. Creamer said that drone manufacturers are concerned that there will be a patchwork of standards in different countries, and they will have to make their products comply with multiple sets of regulations.

A common operating standard was supported by Parimal Kopardekar, a principal investigator for Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) at the NASA Ames Research Center in California. He told Reuters that the ICAO's effort is "smart. If you have a drone that you build in one country you should be able to use it in another country and vice versa," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

FMI: www.icao.int