Blockchain Technology for Secure Communication and Formation Control in Smart Drone Swarms

Athanasios Koulianos and Antonios Litke ()
Additional contact information
Athanasios Koulianos: Department of Mathematics and Engineering, Hellenic Army Academy, 16673 Athens, Greece
Antonios Litke: Department of Mathematics and Engineering, Hellenic Army Academy, 16673 Athens, Greece

Future Internet, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-22

Abstract: Today, intelligent drone technology is rapidly expanding, particularly in the defense industry. A swarm of drones can communicate, share data, and make the best decisions on their own. Drone swarms can swiftly and effectively carry out missions like surveillance, reconnaissance, and rescue operations, without exposing military troops to hostile conditions. However, there are still significant problems that need to be resolved. One of them is to protect communications on these systems from threat actors. In this paper, we use blockchain technology as a defense mechanism against such issues. Drones can communicate data safely, without the need for a centralized authority (ground station), when using a blockchain to facilitate communication between them in a leader–follower hierarchy structure. Solidity has been used to create a compact, lightweight, and effective smart contract that automates the process of choosing a position in a certain swarm formation structure. Additionally, a mechanism for electing a new leader is proposed. The effectiveness of the presented model is assessed through a simulation that makes use of a DApp we created and Gazebo software. The purpose of this work is to develop a reliable and secure UAV swarm communication system that will enable widespread global adoption by numerous sectors.

Keywords: IoT; drone swarms; formation control; security; blockchain; smart contract; Gazebo; mavsdk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/15/10/344/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/15/10/344/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jftint:v:15:y:2023:i:10:p:344-:d:1262953

Access Statistics for this article

Future Internet is currently edited by Ms. Grace You

More articles in Future Internet from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().