A Recommendation for a Systems Engineering Process and System Architecture for UAS

The development of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is complex and usually expensive, as commercial tools are often used, adapted from the development of (small) manned aircraft. To be sure that the authorities will approve the to be developed UAS, some steps within the Systems Engineering (SE) process are required, which are not yet defined in a UAS specific standard. This paper outlines a SE process to develop UAS with open-source tools and shows UAS specific tasks to be thought of, like SORA. The recommended SE process and a system architecture approach should lower the entrance level for small and medium-sized enterprises to develop their own UAS. Besides, frameworks, like ROS or OpenCV, that should be considered working with are briefly explained.