Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Analysis and Safety Assessment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Missions Over the Internet

In the last few years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are making a revolution as an emerging technology with many different applications in the military, civilian, and commercial elds. The advent of autonomous drones has initiated serious challenges, including how to maintain their safe operation during their missions. The safe operation of UAVs remains an open and sensitive issue since any unexpected behavior of the drone or any hazard would lead to potential risks that might be very severe. The motivation behind this work is to propose a methodology for the safety assurance of drones over the Internet (Internet of drones (IoD)). Two approaches will be used in performing the safety analysis: (1) a qualitative safety analysis approach and (2) a quantitative safety analysis approach. The rst approach uses the international safety standards, namely, ISO 12100 and ISO 13849 to assess the safety of drone's missions by focusing on qualitative assessment techniques. The methodology starts with hazard identi cation, risk assessment, risk mitigation, and nally draws the safety recommendations associated with a drone delivery use case. The second approach presents a method for the quantitative safety assessment using Bayesian networks (BN) for probabilistic modeling. BN utilizes the information provided by the rst approach to model the safety risks related to UAVs' ights. An illustrative UAV crash scenario is presented as a case study, followed by scenario analysis, to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. These two analyses, qualitative and quantitative, enable all involved stakeholders to detect, explore, and address the risks of UAV ights, which will help the industry to better manage the safety concerns of UAVs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cyber Risk Assessment and Scoring Model for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The commercial-off-the-shelf small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) market is expanding rapidly in response to interest from hobbyists, commercial businesses, and military operators. The core commercial mission set directly relates to many current military requirements and strategies, with a priority on short range, low cost, real time aerial imaging, and limited modular payloads. These small vehicles present small radar cross sections, low heat signatures, and carry a variety of sensors and payloads. As with many new technologies, security seems secondary to the goal of reaching the market as soon as innovation is viable. Research indicates a growth in exploits and vulnerabilities applicable to small UAV systems, from individual UAV guidance and autopilot controls to the mobile ground station devices that may be as simple as a cellphone application controlling several aircraft. Even if developers strive to improve the security of small UAVs, consumers are left without meaningful insight into the hardware and software protections installed when buying these systems. To date, there is no marketed or accredited risk index for small UAVs. Building from similar domains of aircraft operation, information technologies, cyber-physical systems, and cyber insurance, a cyber risk assessment methodology tailored for small UAVs is proposed and presented in this research. Through case studies of popular models and tailored mission-environment scenarios, the assessment is shown to meet the three objectives of ease-of-use, breadth, and readability. By allowing a cyber risk assessment at or before acquisition, organizations and individuals will be able to accurately compare and choose the best aircraft for their mission

Post-Westgate SWAT : C4ISTAR Architectural Framework for Autonomous Network Integrated Multifaceted Warfighting Solutions Version 1.0 : A Peer-Reviewed Monograph

Police SWAT teams and Military Special Forces face mounting pressure and challenges from adversaries that can only be resolved by way of ever more sophisticated inputs into tactical operations. Lethal Autonomy provides constrained military/security forces with a viable option, but only if implementation has got proper empirically supported foundations. Autonomous weapon systems can be designed and developed to conduct ground, air and naval operations. This monograph offers some insights into the challenges of developing legal, reliable and ethical forms of autonomous weapons, that address the gap between Police or Law Enforcement and Military operations that is growing exponentially small. National adversaries are today in many instances hybrid threats, that manifest criminal and military traits, these often require deployment of hybrid-capability autonomous weapons imbued with the capability to taken on both Military and/or Security objectives. The Westgate Terrorist Attack of 21st September 2013 in the Westlands suburb of Nairobi, Kenya is a very clear manifestation of the hybrid combat scenario that required military response and police investigations against a fighting cell of the Somalia based globally networked Al Shabaab terrorist group.Comment: 52 pages, 6 Figures, over 40 references, reviewed by a reade

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

Risk Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This paper presents an efficient risk management model for unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs. Our proposed risk management establishes a cyclic model with a continuous and iterative structure that is very adaptable to agile methods and all IT-related resources. This model can be used in many applications, but as a case study, we have discussed it for UAVs. The increasing use of UAVs or drones in many fields and the existence of different threats is the main reason to have an efficient risk management method for them. In this paper, we cover risks based on IT-driven assets to decrease the chance of losing any data, failing the equipment or the system, and missing the reputation or credit based on cyclic and iterative flow. Our current risk management model for UAVs or drones is based on qualitative measures and can cover most of IT-based risks

Unmanned aircraft systems as a new source of disturbance for wildlife: A systematic review.

The use of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS; also known as "drones") for professional and personal-leisure use is increasing enormously. UAS operate at low altitudes (<500 m) and in any terrain, thus they are susceptible to interact with local fauna, generating a new type of anthropogenic disturbance that has not been systematically evaluated. To address this gap, we performed a review of the existent literature about animals' responses to UAS flights and conducted a pooled analysis of the data to determine the probability and intensity of the disturbance, and to identify the factors influencing animals' reactions towards the small aircraft. We found that wildlife reactions depended on both the UAS attributes (flight pattern, engine type and size of aircraft) and the characteristics of animals themselves (type of animal, life-history stage and level of aggregation). Target-oriented flight patterns, larger UAS sizes, and fuel-powered (noisier) engines evoked the strongest reactions in wildlife. Animals during the non-breeding period and in large groups were more likely to show behavioral reactions to UAS, and birds are more prone to react than other taxa. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of wildlife disturbance and suggest guidelines for conservationists, users and manufacturers to minimize the impact of UAS. In addition, we propose that the legal framework needs to be adapted so that appropriate actions can be undertaken when wildlife is negatively affected by these emergent practices

Survey of Bayesian Networks Applications to Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles

This article reviews the applications of Bayesian Networks to Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles (IAV) from the decision making point of view, which represents the final step for fully Autonomous Vehicles (currently under discussion). Until now, when it comes making high level decisions for Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), humans have the last word. Based on the works cited in this article and analysis done here, the modules of a general decision making framework and its variables are inferred. Many efforts have been made in the labs showing Bayesian Networks as a promising computer model for decision making. Further research should go into the direction of testing Bayesian Network models in real situations. In addition to the applications, Bayesian Network fundamentals are introduced as elements to consider when developing IAVs with the potential of making high level judgement calls.Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Usability of Urban Air Mobility: Quantitative and Qualitative Assessments of Usage in Emergency Situations

The purpose of these four studies was to determine participants’ willingness to support the use of urban air mobility (UAM) in response to natural disasters, along with the preferred locations to establish vertiports. Study 1 assessed the willingness to support using a mixed factorial design. The findings demonstrated strong, robust support for the use of UAM when responding to natural disasters. Study 2 worked to create and validate a scale that could assess vertiports\u27 current and proposed locations. The Vertiport Usability Scale was developed and shown to have strong psychometric properties to validly assess vertiport locations through a multi-stage process. Study 3 used the Vertiport Usability Scale to understand the most highly preferred locations for vertiports in three conditions from a multi-stage process: temporary disaster locations, permanent disaster locations, and permanent consumer locations. Study 4 was conducted using qualitative methods to complement the earlier quantitative approaches. Through an initial survey and follow-on interview, three themes emerged related to UAM in response to natural disasters and vertiports: 1) human involvement in UAM operations, 2) scenarios for usage, and 3) setup and deployment of vehicles

Local Government Policy and Planning for Unmanned Aerial Systems

This research identifies key state and local government stakeholders in California for drone policy creation and implementation, and describes their perceptions and understanding of drone policy. The investigation assessed stakeholders’ positions, interests, and influence on issues, with the goal of providing potential policy input to achieve successful drone integration in urban environments and within the national airspace of the United States. The research examined regulatory priorities through the use of a two-tiered Stakeholder Analysis Process. The first tier consisted of a detailed survey sent out to over 450 local agencies and jurisdictions in California. The second tier consisted of an in-person focus group to discuss survey results as well as to gain deeper insights into local policymakers’ current concerns. Results from the two tiers of analysis, as well as recommendations, are provided here