Civil Drone Ethics and Sustainability

Abstract

In order to solve the largely ignored issues of civil drones it is imperative to develop a framework that assures an ethical and sustainable practice. This paper analyses continuing ethical and sustainable issues, then reviews existing literature focused on these issues and their recommended solutions. Highlighted while reviewing literature was the common shortcoming of not considering that sensors other than cameras can breach privacy. Furthermore, a revised code of ethics/sustainability is developed and divided into the following principles: flying zones, data acquisition, data processing, and sustainable practice. To evaluate the code of ethics/sustainability it was applied to a case study of inspecting a solar farm in New Zealand. The case study showed the code created
a non-invasive and sustainable drone practice. Rapid civil drone development calls for further development of this paper and related studies.