Search

Drones have been used by the military since mid-1970 but the development of autonomous systems from the turn of the millennium and onward has opened the area of UAV to civil service and the public immensely. Today UAV technology saves lives in Search And Rescue operations, complements and supports full scale vehicles at the Police force and assists in surveys and documentation of ground and forests. UAS contributes in areas where manned aircraft can’t reach, is too expensive and where the noise from full scale crafts would drown the scream in a search operation. From an environmental point of view UAS is far ahead of manned flight in electrification and its smaller size and lower maintenance saves scarce resources. The development of drones covers a wide area of expertise from traditional aeronautics, electronics, control theory, software development, air law and Artificial Intelligence. There are a few organizations and companies that dominate the field but as a new science UAS is not established such as computer science and has few research authorities among universities. This paper is an explorative research of UAS use within Swedish civil service. Interviews based on a selection of authorities, picked from an expert group at Lund University, have made the foundation of this qualitative study. This research covers: How UAS is implemented, legal aspects, collaboration and vision. To ensure a structured and systematic analysis, established organizational theory with Value-chain, Power–Interest-matrix and Strategic Capability have been used. Key factors of UAS history & development, open control systems and aeronautic culture are also covered. With added support from UAS-lawyer and Transportstyrelsen an introduction of drone law finalize the chapter of theory. Workshops at Ljungbyhed have been held during a week in spring 2022, covering Human Factors and SAR UAS. Numerous presentations from leading Swedish UAS authorities contributed with additional views to ensure