Reliability database for unmanned aerial vehicles based on morphological analysis

The certification process plays an important role in aircraft safety and operation, assuring a high degree of confidence in accomplishing their objectives. Unfortunately, in the field of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), there is not enough information to enable an acceptable decision-making process regarding compliance with certification requirements. To overcome this limitation, a methodology was developed based on morphological analysis principle, taking advantage of the knowledge and behaviour of similar items and affecting them with the necessary corrective factor in accordance to the differences in design, operation and environment. The objective is to establish an initial maintenance program as an important requirement to operate any kind of aircraft. This paper presents the methodology and the obtained results for a UAV under development concerning the establishment of a maintenance program regarding its certification process.