Global Experience in the Use of Unmanned Aviation Technologies in Public Administration: a Review

Abstract

TUnmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), despite their relative novelty, are already an integral component of the general aviation structure, and, based on a number of complex and sophisticated solutions, including those related to artificial intelligence, are part of the spectrum of high technologies. UAS find application not only in the sphere of commerce, but also in the realisation of specific tasks of public administration, such as territory management, healthcare, emergency prevention and elimination, ensuring environmental safety and law and order, nature management. The purpose of the study, the results of which are presented in this publication, is to assess the current state and potential of the use of UAS in these areas based on a review of literature sources on the practice of their application in order to solve the tasks of public administration in different countries of the world. The main conclusion drawn from the analysis and characterising the general scientific novelty of the study is that, despite a significant number of specific examples, the breadth of UAS use range can be characterised as imaginary. The main and the only really significant application is various types of aerial survey in the interests of state control and supervision bodies. In the course of the work, a number of promising directions for the use of UAS have been identified. It is also noted that their wider implementation in the practice of public administration is hindered by the lack and/or imperfection of the relevant legal framework, typical for most legislative systems of the world, and postulates the need to actively address these issues in relation to the classification and certification of UAS, requirements for their operators and software, the procedure and rules of operation, the integration of unmanned aircraft (UAS) into the existing air traffic management system.