DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation) has defined NPNT i.e. No Permission No Take-off as mandatory compliance for all RPA’s in India. One of the fantastic architectural concepts of NPNT framework is the capability of RPA to take permission in digital format using digital certificate keys. This permission is called as Permission Artefact (PA). Digital certificate is used for securing data between Digital Sky and RPA. The digital certificate is used to sign the data and then encrypt/decrypt the data. This end to end secure communication of data is meant to avoid any kind of man in middle attack. As per NPNT process, each flight requires permission from Digital Sky platform. The permission comes as part of software process, where client software sends request to Digital Sky platform and then gets PA (Permission Artefact) as response from Digital Sky platform after successful exchange of digital keys. There are couple of options available for getting the Permission Artefact from Digital Sky, either manually or automated. Manual Process The detailed process of getting Permission Artefact manually is described here:

1. 1. A Pilot must first create a mission plan in GCS.
   2. Then download the mission plan from GCS software to local drive.
   3. He must then login to Digital Sky Platform,
   4. Upload the downloaded mission plan to Digital Sky platform.
   5. Enter details of aircraft including UIN number on Digital Sky Platform.
   6. Upload the digital Certificate on Digital Sky Platform
   7. Then download the Permission Artefact from Digital Sky platform.
   8. Login to the NPNT software which you have taken from other RFM provider
   9. Upload the Permission Artefact to the NPNT software.
   10. Then connect the NPNT Software to the RPA
   11. Then upload the Permission Artefact to the RPA.

After doing all these at-least 11 steps you would be able to fly the aircraft. All these 11 steps are required for one permission artefact. If a pilot completes 10 such flights in a day using micro drone then, he would be doing such 110 steps in a day. It will make pilot crazy by doing all such steps in a day. Is there any solution available to make this entire process automated so that pilot does not have to spend even a single second extra to get permission Artefact? Yes, there is a solution! Automated Process

1. 1. A pilot must create a mission in the GCS
   2. The GCS automatically takes care of all the other things as listed in the manual process above.

In just 2 steps, a GCS software based solution takes away all the hassles and helps save upto 90% efforts and time as against the manual process. On top of that, the GCS based software solution also helps you comply with Level 1 compliance securing the RPA system from hacks and hi-jacks. It’s upto you which process you wish to choose!