Routing Unmanned Vehicles in GPS-Denied Environments

Most of the routing algorithms for unmanned vehicles, that arise in data gathering and monitoring applications in the literature, rely on the Global Positioning System (GPS) information for localization. However, disruption of GPS signals either intentionally or unintentionally could potentially render these algorithms not applicable. In this article, we present a novel method to address this difficulty by combining methods from cooperative localization and routing. In particular, the article formulates a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem to plan routes for an unmanned vehicle in a GPS-restricted environment while enabling localization for the vehicle. We also develop algorithms to compute optimal paths for the vehicle using the proposed formulation. Extensive simulation results are also presented to corroborate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed formulation and algorithms.Comment: Publised in International Conference on Umanned Aerial System

Routing Vehicles with Motion, Resource and Mission Constraints: Algorithms and Bounds

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are used for several military and civil applications such as reconnaissance, surveillance etc. The UAVs, due to their design and size limitations, have inherent kinematic constraints, communication constraints etc. This thesis considers the path planning problems for UAVs while satisfying a class of constraints. We consider a multiple depot UAV routing problem, where the vehicles have motion constraints due to bound on their yaw-rate. For a given set of targets, it is required that each target should be on the path of at least one of the vehicles. This problem is hard to solve and currently there are no algorithm that could find an optimal solution. We aim to find tight lower bounds for this problem via Lagrangian relaxation. The complicating constraints of the problem are relaxed, and the cost function is penalized whenever those constraints are violated. This reduces the original problem to a known problem - a standard multiple traveling salesmen problem (MTSP). Simulation results are presented to show that this method significantly improved the existing lower bounds. The second problem we consider is the routing of UAVs in GPS denied environments and with limited communication range. Two different architectures for navigation assisted by an array of Unattended Ground Sensors (UGSs) are considered. In the first case, when an UAV localizes itself by communicating with an UGS, the second UAV can orbit around the first UAV. Contact with UGS allows them to act as beacons for relative navigation eliminating the need for GPS. A randomized algorithm with approximation ratio of 9/2 and a transformation technique are developed to solve this problem. In the second architecture, when two UAVs are located at two different UGSs, the third UAV localizes by triangulation using range measurements from the first two UAVs. This three UAV case is solved using a graph transformation technique to pose it as an one-in-a-set TSP. The solutions produced by these algorithms were used to simulate the UAV routing on AMASE, a simulation tool for routing UAVs developed by the Air Force Research Laboratories

Thesis title: Feasibility study of using collaborative UAVs for Emergency Response in Road Tunnels

Utilizing UAVs for assisting in emergency response missions is already a fact, both in open landscapes like forests and in restricted areas like sewers. However, using them in road tunnels has not yet been realised, and could possibly provide a huge help for the first responders in the form of surveillance, providing network coverage or announcing self-help assistance to the victims. There are certain challenges for this to be possible, some of them being lack of signal coverage, battery life and positional navigation in a GPS-denied environment. In this thesis the feasibility of this will be put into consideration by surveying available software and hardware for this utilization, as well as setting up a generalised energy consumption model to check where the different drone configurations can be used. The results implies that the state-of-the-art drone configurations are very capable of being used to assist in emergency situations in road tunnels, both when it comes to response time and length coverage. However, the main restricting factor will be cost, as modern drone swarm configurations with a reasonable battery capacity and sophisticated sensors comes at a high cost.Utilizing UAVs for assisting in emergency response missions is already a fact, both in open landscapes like forests and in restricted areas like sewers. However, using them in road tunnels has not yet been realised, and could possibly provide a huge help for the first responders in the form of surveillance, providing network coverage or announcing self-help assistance to the victims. There are certain challenges for this to be possible, some of them being lack of signal coverage, battery life and positional navigation in a GPS-denied environment. In this thesis the feasibility of this will be put into consideration by surveying available software and hardware for this utilization, as well as setting up a generalised energy consumption model to check where the different drone configurations can be used. The results implies that the state-of-the-art drone configurations are very capable of being used to assist in emergency situations in road tunnels, both when it comes to response time and length coverage. However, the main restricting factor will be cost, as modern drone swarm configurations with a reasonable battery capacity and sophisticated sensors comes at a high cost

A Survey of Security in UAVs and FANETs: Issues, Threats, Analysis of Attacks, and Solutions

Thanks to the rapidly developing technology, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are able to complete a number of tasks in cooperation with each other without need for human intervention. In recent years, UAVs, which are widely utilized in military missions, have begun to be deployed in civilian applications and mostly for commercial purposes. With their growing numbers and range of applications, UAVs are becoming more and more popular; on the other hand, they are also the target of various threats which can exploit various vulnerabilities of UAV systems in order to cause destructive effects. It is therefore critical that security is ensured for UAVs and the networks that provide communication between UAVs. In this survey, we aimed to present a comprehensive detailed approach to security by classifying possible attacks against UAVs and flying ad hoc networks (FANETs). We classified the security threats into four major categories that make up the basic structure of UAVs; hardware attacks, software attacks, sensor attacks, and communication attacks. In addition, countermeasures against these attacks are presented in separate groups as prevention and detection. In particular, we focus on the security of FANETs, which face significant security challenges due to their characteristics and are also vulnerable to insider attacks. Therefore, this survey presents a review of the security fundamentals for FANETs, and also four different routing attacks against FANETs are simulated with realistic parameters and then analyzed. Finally, limitations and open issues are also discussed to direct future wor

A systematic literature review on Security of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are becoming more common, and their operational range is expanding tremendously, making the security aspect of the inquiry essential. This study does a thorough assessment of the literature to determine the most common cyberattacks and the effects they have on UAV assaults on civilian targets. The STRIDE assault paradigm, the challenge they present, and the proper tools for the attack are used to categorize the cyber dangers discussed in this paper. Spoofing and denial of service assaults are the most prevalent types of UAV cyberattacks and have the best results. No attack style demands the employment of a hard-to-reach gadget, indicating that the security environment currently necessitates improvements to UAV use in civilian applications.Comment: 10 Pages, 4 Figure