SORA - Specific Operational Risk Assessment for drones

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SORA (Specific Operations Risk Assessment) is a risk analysis for the use of unmanned flight systems (civil drones). SORA is a development of the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems, or JARUS for short. JARUS is an international committee of experts in which Germany is also represented. The first version of the international SORA was published at the beginning of August 2017. SORA is used as a multi-stage process of risk assessment and is intended to improve safety through the use of drones.

In the risk management acc. EASA takes the following criteria into account:

  • Operation area;
  • Airspace;
  • Aviation system;
  • Purpose and
  • Knowledge of the controller.

Benefits of SORA

Risk management serves to identify and contain dangers for:

  • People on the ground
  • other air transport
  • critical infrastructure

These three hazards have proven to be typical of the "drone deployment out of control" scenario. The causes of occurrence should be avoided by means of appropriate measures and the effects should be weakened if they occur. This should ensure the safe operation of unmanned aerial vehicles and avoid fatal collisions with people on the ground, air traffic or critical infrastructure.

SORA international process

SORA takes place in the international draft according to a fixed scheme:

Step # 0: Review the Necessity; Is the operation permissible or, if applicable, permitted?

Step # 1: Creation of the ConOps ("operator concept"); Information on operations, personnel, experience, qualifications, aviation systems, maintenance and standard procedures.

Step # 2: Determination of the Ground Risk Class (GRC) of defined criteria (inhabited area or periphery, crowd, etc.)

Step # 3: Mitigation of the GRC damage through, for example, parachute or geofencing

Step # 4: Determining Lethality

Step # 5: Determine the SAIL; Preventive measures to minimize damage

Step # 6: Determine the Airspace Encounter Category (AEC)

Step # 7: Determine Air Risk Class (ARC); Airspaces and density of flight movements

Step # 8: Mitigation ARC

Step # 9: Define the effectiveness of the measures

Step # 10: Determine the recommended preventive measures according to the higher value of GRC or ARC

Step # 11: Verifying Feasibility

Step # 12: Justification of the robustness of the preventive measures chosen

Risk management in Germany

A German version or implementation of SORA has not yet taken place, but has already been announced by some state aviation authorities (e.g. Lower Saxony, Bremen and Berlin).

In Bremen, information on risk management must already be provided when applying for a permit: "Please provide the following information about yourself / your company, deployed staff, experience, qualifications, quality management, aviation systems used, maintenance and repair, risk minimization and the planned process of your requested Company. "

Risk management in Switzerland; GALLO

 The origin of SORA is likely to lie in the Guidance for an Authorization for Low Level Operation of RPAS (GALLO for short) published in 2014. The Swiss risk management is used to create an operating manual with relevant data on the operation, the pilots and the missions and in terms of content corresponds in many points to the ConOps of the international SORA.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d JARUS: JARUS guidelines on Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) V 1.0 . 1st edition.
  2. ^ A b Maximilian Beck: SORA - The risk management for drones . In: Jens Rosenow (Ed.): DROHNEN Magazin . tape 4/2017 . AEROMEDIA Verlag GmbH & Co.KG, Berlin, S. 52-54 .
  3. ↑ Maximilian Beck: Dr. Drone: The Drone Ordinance: Assessment of planned standards for the regulation of civil drones based on economic interests and social risks . 2nd Edition. Books on Demand, Norderstedt, ISBN 978-3-7431-9450-2 .
  4. ↑ a b European Aviation Safety Agency : Introduction of a regulatory framework for the operation of unmanned aircraft . Ed .: European Aviation Safety Agency. December 18, 2015.
  5. ↑ JARUS: SORA Annex CV 1.0 .
  6. ^ The Senator for Economics, Labor and Ports Free Aviation Authority; Free Aviation Authority Hanseatic City of Bremen: Application for a permit or approval to operate unmanned aviation systems (UAS). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 14, 2017 ; accessed on October 6, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.buergerservice.bremen.de
  7. ^ Federal Office for Civil Aviation FOCA, Switzerland .: Guidance for an Authorization for Low Level Operation of RPAS . 1st edition. 2014.