About the company

A drone operator is any individual or organization that owns or leases the drone(s). You can be both a drone operator and a remote pilot as long as you are also the person who actually flies the drone. However, you can be a remote pilot without being a drone operator, for example if you are a pilot working for a company that provides drone services. In this case, the company is the drone operator and you are the remote pilot.

If you bought a drone to fly it at your leisure, you are both the operator of the drone and the remote pilot.

If you bought a drone as a gift, the person who will receive the gift and subsequently fly the drone will be the drone operator and remote pilot.

"Unmanned aircraft" means any aircraft operated or intended for autonomous operation or remote control without a pilot on board;

Types of drones

This definition includes all types of aircraft without a pilot on board, including radio-controlled flying models (fixed-wing, helicopters, gliders), whether or not they have a built-in camera.

The regulation uses the term UAS, unmanned aircraft system, to refer to a drone, its system and all other equipment used to control and operate it, such as a command unit, a possible catapult to launch it, and others.

RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) is a subcategory of UAS that also includes fully autonomous UAS. Fully autonomous UAS fly completely by themselves without the need for any pilot intervention.

An autonomous drone is able to perform a safe flight without the intervention of a pilot. It does this with the help of artificial intelligence, which enables it to cope with all kinds of unforeseen and unpredictable emergencies. This differs from automated operations where the drone flies along predetermined routes defined by the drone operator before the flight begins. For this type of drone, it is essential that a remote pilot takes control of the drone in order to intervene in unforeseen events that the drone was not programmed for. While automatic operation is permitted in all categories, autonomous drone operation is not permitted in the open category.


Autonomous drones need a level of verification of compliance with technical requirements that is not compatible with the system established for the "open" category. However, autonomous operations are allowed in a "specific" category, where the regulation contains a sufficiently flexible tool to verify the requirements with an appropriate level of robustness. Autonomous operations are also allowed in the "certified" category.