Remote ID is a drone's ability in flight to provide identification and location information that other parties can receive. Remote ID's goal is to help the FAA, law enforcement, and other federal agencies find the control station when a drone appears to be flying in an unsafe manner or where it is not allowed to fly. Remote ID also lays the foundation of the safety and security groundwork needed for more complex drone operations. While the basics around how Remote ID works worldwide are similar, some differences exist between the US, EU, and France versions and how they call compared to the ASTM RID and ASD-STAN versions.

US Remote ID standards

The FAA, the federal agency responsible for the US version, announced its ruling on Dec 31, 2020, and it will go into effect October 2023. The US version gives drone manufactures until October 2022 to implement Remote ID in all products.

While the FAA made this requirement mandatory, the US version gives the manufacturers the option to broadcast either the drone serial number or session ID. The serial number will provide a unique identifier for the drone; the session ID will change every time the drone is turned on. The US version made it mandatory for the remote ID to include Drone Longitude and Lattitude, track direction, both horizontal and vertical speed, and Pilot location. While the FAA made transmission every 1 second as a requirement, they did not specify the type of technology it should use.

France Remote ID standards

The French version of remote ID's main difference is that they kept the requirement of having a unique identifier. Manufacturers have the option to transmit a serial number or another unique identifier but not a session ID that changes on every takeoff. The French version of RID also made it mandatory to transmit GPS location for the drone pilot, altitude, and speed. Still, it made operator registration optional and the transmission is sent every 3 seconds and 30 meters when there is displacement. Last, the French remote ID identifies the technology to be used, which will be WiFi beacon.

EU Remote ID standards

EU remote ID Rule came into effect on Dec. 2020. The rule is the least restrictive to both the French and US remote ID. It requires a serial number of unique ID, Drone and Pilot location, but it does not provide any requirements for the technology used or transmission intervals.

ASTM and ASD-STAN Remote ID standards

ASTM and ASD-STAN are international standards organizations that develop and publish voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services. Regarding remote ID, both organizations had similar inputs on drone and pilot GPS location with few differences on operator registration number dynamic position. ASTM made these items optional, while ASD-STAN made the ruling mandatory. Concerning technology, made BT4 and WiFi NAN 2.4 Mandatory and WIFI NAN 5.0 and BT5 Optional and gave no input on WiFi beacon while ASD-STAN made BT4 optional and WiFi Beacon mandatory.

The table below summarizes and compares the final ID ruling between EU, FR, US, ASTM, and ASD-STAN DRI.