The idea of registering drones with the government isn’t new, and in fact the idea was implemented by the US a couple of years ago, with similar ideas being considered by Russia, and alternative concepts being looked at by countries such as the UK, all of which suggests that drones need to be regulated somehow.
Now the United Nations’ aviation agency is looking into creating a global drone registry in a bid to come up with a common set of rules to help government the use and tracking of unmanned aircrafts. The International Civil Aviation Organization came up with the proposal during a Montreal symposium this month, with the hopes that the data can be accessed in real time.
However as Reuters notes, the ICAO cannot impose these regulations on countries, which means that for now it could merely be seen as a suggestion, and that not all UN member nations have to take part if they do not wish to. However a global drone registry does sound like it could be a more efficient way of handling drones in the skies, versus multiple databases operated by individual countries/governments.
It will also help make the work of drone makers easier, because according to Stephen Creamer, director of ICAO’s air navigation bureau, “They (drone makers) are worried that Europe might create one set of standards, United States might do a second and China might do a third. And they’ve got to build a drone differently in these different environments.” Whether or not this is actually implemented remains to be seen.