The SHEPHERD project pursues the work performed by the AW-Drones project: its goal is to assess the suitability of the standards identified by the previous project and verify their conformity to the requirements contained in the latest European rules.

In 2019, the AW-Drones project was launched to support the ongoing EU regulatory process with the identification of technical standards and procedures. In particular, the AW-Drones project assessed the standards listed in the U-RDP with regard to maturity, coverage, cost of compliance, environmental impact, effects on EU industry competitiveness and social acceptance. The assessment, however, did not include the evaluation of the technical content to determine whether the standards are adequate to meet the safety objective of the provisions of the related regulations.

The SHEPHERD project aims to evaluate the technical suitability of the standards to the requirements contained in the Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA), EASA’s Special Condition (SC) Light-UAS for Medium Risk, EASA’s Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/664. The methodology used is impartial, systematic, and consistent.