1. Purpose
This policy sets out Murzo Group's approach to autonomous testing, field trials, pilot deployments, drones, UAVs, robotics trials, remote operations, sensors, and remote-controlled systems.
The purpose is to support responsible testing while reducing risk to people, animals, aircraft, vehicles, property, land, crops, water, public spaces, data, security, customers, suppliers, and the environment.
2. Scope
This policy applies to tests and trials involving drones, UAVs, mobile robots, autonomous vehicles, farm robotics, security robotics, inspection tools, remote sensors, cameras, mapping tools, AI navigation, automated spraying, automated feeding, remote access, and field data collection.
It applies in the UK, EU, China, Spain, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Vietnam, Gibraltar, Turks and Caicos, and any other country where Murzo Group tests, demonstrates, supports, or commissions autonomous or remote systems.
3. Approval Before Testing
No field trial, drone operation, autonomous movement, remote operation, public demonstration, customer site test, farm test, security test, or live robotics deployment may proceed unless the purpose, location, responsible person, equipment, permissions, risk controls, emergency actions, data handling, and third-party roles have been considered.
Testing must be proportionate to risk. Low-risk desktop simulation is different from live autonomous movement, public flight, animal interaction, food environment testing, or security deployment.
4. Legal Permissions and Local Rules
Testing must comply with applicable aviation, drone, privacy, data protection, health and safety, road, land access, public space, landlord, insurance, product safety, radio, environmental, food, farming, animal welfare, import, export, and local authority rules.
Country-specific requirements must be checked before field trials, especially where drones, mapping, cameras, biometrics, AI, radio transmission, security operations, border areas, protected sites, government premises, or public infrastructure are involved.
5. Site, Public and Environmental Safety
Trials should consider people nearby, workers, visitors, children, animals, aircraft, roads, vehicles, overhead lines, water, weather, terrain, crops, soil, buildings, public rights of way, private land, wildlife, noise, dust, chemicals, and emergency access.
Controls may include exclusion zones, spotters, geofencing, speed limits, emergency stops, manual override, tethering, signage, supervision, weather limits, battery controls, fire controls, privacy controls, and abort criteria.
6. Drones and UAVs
Drones and UAVs must not be flown unless the operator, owner, pilot, platform, category, registration, identification, insurance, location, airspace, permissions, data capture, and emergency procedures are suitable for the country and operation.
Drone operations must not endanger aircraft, people, animals, property, public order, national security, privacy, restricted sites, borders, airports, military areas, infrastructure, or wildlife.
7. Data Capture and Surveillance
Field trials may capture images, video, audio, location data, telemetry, environmental data, crop data, animal data, worker data, or customer data. Data capture must be limited to the trial purpose and handled under data protection, surveillance, confidentiality, security, and customer rules.
Hidden surveillance, unnecessary facial capture, worker monitoring, public tracking, sensitive site mapping, and biometric analysis must not occur unless specifically approved and lawful.
8. Remote Operations and Cyber Security
Remote operations must be protected against unauthorised access, signal interference, credential misuse, spoofing, jamming, malware, insecure apps, compromised controllers, and unapproved cloud services.
Remote operators must be able to stop, isolate, recover, or hand over control where needed. Autonomous systems must not be left running without suitable monitoring where they may create risk.
9. Third-Party Sites and Equipment
Customers, landowners, event organisers, drone operators, robotics suppliers, installers, pilots, carriers, and contractors remain responsible for their own permissions, equipment, staff, insurance, operations, data handling, and legal compliance unless Murzo Group has expressly accepted responsibility in writing.
Murzo Group does not accept responsibility for injury, damage, loss, regulatory breach, privacy breach, failed trial, unsafe flight, equipment failure, or unauthorised data capture caused by third parties acting outside written approval or outside Murzo Group control, except where law requires otherwise.
10. Incidents and Stop Authority
Any person may stop or escalate a test where conditions become unsafe, permission is unclear, equipment behaves unexpectedly, a drone enters unsafe airspace, data capture becomes excessive, animals or people are affected, or a security issue arises.
Incidents, near misses, lost drones, flyaways, collisions, injuries, property damage, data breach, animal harm, environmental release, or authority contact must be escalated promptly.
11. Review and Evidence
Murzo Group may keep proportionate evidence of approvals, site checks, permissions, operator details, safety controls, incidents, data decisions, and customer instructions where needed for legal, insurance, safety, aviation, customer, or dispute purposes.
This policy should be reviewed when trial types, countries, laws, equipment, suppliers, or autonomous capabilities change.
