Regulation and innovation: How should small unmanned aerial vehicles be regulated?

Abstract Regulation both promotes and suppresses innovation. Good regulation is effective in terms of realizing social values and objectives, and is efficient in promoting economic activities by minimizing direct and indirect costs. The use of alternatives rather than traditional prescriptive approaches has been encouraged, but is still the challenge of policy makers and researchers who still lack the expertise to introduce alternatives in regulation. In this paper, the authors discuss the regulation of small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs), because sUAVs are advantageous in a variety of sectors although they also violate the safety of people, buildings, vehicles, and manned aircraft. This paper focuses on the current discourse on sUAV safety regulations in Japan, and extends the System-theoretic Accident Model and Process (STAMP) approach to assess the current regulations. The authors highlight four safety concerns and show alternative ways for more effective and efficient regulation in terms of the expectations of stakeholders for alternative regulation.