The integration of drones in today's society

The integration of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in today's society depends on the ability of their operators to demonstrate safety. RPAS operators use risk matrices, as required by the Dutch government, to indicate the safety level. Key issues with this approach include the lack of available component reliability data for determining the risk factors, and the exclusion of human interactions. This study aims to determine the competence of the Systematic Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to demonstrate the safety of RPAS operations. It is concluded that the STPA is a comprehensive method to demonstrate the safety of RPAS operations. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.