Towards safer skies: using STAMP to evaluate Australia’s safety system for remotely piloted aircraft systems

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), also known as drones, are a rapidly emerging technology being quickly adopted in civil and military applications. Although there are many potential benefits, several safety challenges also exist. This requires a proactive approach to design the broader sociotechnical safety system required to support the safe and optimal use of this technology. This study provides a novel application of the Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) safety control structure model to develop a proposed control structure for safe and effective RPAS operations. Following subject expert review and validation, the proposed STAMP control structure served as the basis for evaluating the current RPAS safety system’s maturity and identifying gaps between the proposed and current structures. The findings revealed several gaps at all levels of the safety control structure model. Based on a review of these gaps, a series of required control actions and feedback mechanisms is presented. A national RPAS strategy was identified as a key control action mechanism that could support safe and effective RPAS operations. Overall, the study represents a novel application of STAMP to a rapidly emerging and disruptive technology; the implications for future applications in other contexts are discussed.