UAV Functional Safety and Cybersecurity Design: Building the Reliable Foundation for Next-Generation Flight Systems

New Trends in UAV Development: Shifting from Performance-Driven to Safety-First
As UAV applications expand into critical fields such as logistics, surveying, agriculture, and traffic monitoring, “safety” is no longer just an added value — it has become a core design and development benchmark. Products involving autonomous navigation, automated flight, or human interaction fall under the category of “Functional Safety” and must comply with international standards such as ISO 13849, IEC 61508, and EN 18031. SGS can assist you in establishing a comprehensive functional safety and cybersecurity development framework, ensuring your product design aligns seamlessly with regulatory requirements.

Integrated Dual Approach: Functional Safety (FuSa) + Cybersecurity
With UAV control systems growing increasingly complex, both random failures and systematic errors must be addressed using risk analysis techniques such as FMEA, FMEDA, and FTA. At the same time, cybersecurity is becoming ever more critical — to prevent hacking, signal interception, or system breaches, measures such as TARA (Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment), attack tree analysis, and static code analysis (e.g., MISRA C, CERT C) are essential. SGS offers end-to-end process modeling, risk tracing, and testing verification services to help you implement robust safety mechanisms from design through production.

SGS Functional Safety Team Supporting xIL Verification Frameworks
Using SiL (Software-in-Loop), HiL (Hardware-in-Loop), and ViL (Vehicle-in-Loop) technologies, SGS can conduct fault injection, static analysis, and penetration testing in both simulated and physical environments. We help complete Safety Integrity Level (SIL) evaluations, quantify risks, and provide actionable improvement recommendations. This approach enables early detection of potential failures, ultimately reducing future recall and maintenance risks.

The SGS functional safety team — including system architecture engineers, cybersecurity analysts, test engineers, and reliability experts — provides technical support and training programs for your UAV development teams. We help enterprises build autonomous compliance capabilities, ensuring that your products not only “can fly” but also “fly with confidence.” Contact us: SGS 📧 Jeff-tw.Chang@sgs.com