Plant protection treatments in Switzerland using unmanned aerial vehicles: regulatory framework and lessons learned.

Switzerland was the first European country to approve the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the purpose of plant protection treatments. The regulatory framework that has been established requires UAV sprayers to undergo a series of technical assessments that have generated a substantial amount of data. Here, we first describe the regulatory framework and the underlying rationales, followed by analyzing data from the technical assessments.