Lidé na fakultě
PhDr. Sarah Komasová, Ph.D.

2024, Drone Systems and Applications, 12, ISSN 2564-4939

Understanding societal acceptance of drones is key to their operational incorporation to flight space. For this reason, this study measures experience, norms, and concerns related to drone operation on a quota representative sample of the Czech public and provides an overview of the situation. It finds out that a majority of Czechs already has some level of personal experience with drones and that Czechs are quite confident about high quality of drones’ performance in regard to manoeuvrability, video recording, or low noise levels. Despite these, more legislative regulations and their stronger enforcement are favoured by the majority. Public acceptance of a particular type of flight operations is then highly dependent on the operators’ institutional background. Operations by police and firefighters are supported significantly more. Finally, it is shown that privacy is the driving concern compared to safety or noise in the Czech Republic. Given these, it seems reasonable to focus further communication with the public about this issue, particularly on the introduction of technological capabilities, societal effects of drone operation, and the current legislative framework related to privacy rights and new technologies rather than on promoting drone operation safety.

Článek v periodiku excerpovaném databází Scopus

2021, Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 103 (3), ISSN 0921-0296

This article identifies the current leading streams in the research of drones across multiple disciplines in order to identify topics and factors that have not been sufficiently considered in the context of public opinion research to date. A sample of drone-related literature is analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Qualitative thematic analysis is a method that systematizes and characterizes the main themes and main factors included in texts. As a result, the article proposes a systemization of drone-related research and an overview of the main factors considered within the identified categories. Beyond the literature systemization, the article evaluates which of the themes and factors have and which have not been researched in regard to public perception. Based on this analysis, the article concludes that, even though they have been researched in other contexts, two essential aspects are missing in the research of public opinion regarding drone use: 1) a systemic reflection and theorization of privacy, 2) measurements of the perception of the actual technological capabilities of drones. Therefore, these topics should be addressed in future surveys and interviews. Moreover, the analysis shows the prevalence of American public samples in existing surveys and points out a possible bias in conclusions made based on these works. Broader international representation is recommended for future works.

Článek v periodiku excerpovaném SCI Expanded