Design and Field Test of a GPS Spoofer for UAV Trajectory Manipulation

Abstract

With the frequent occurrence of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) accidents, GPS spoofing has become a hot technology in the field of low-altitude UAV management and control. Nowadays several cases of successful live UAV deception by generating GPS spoofing signals have been reported. The description of the spoofing strategy for manipulating UAV trajectories, however, is not detailed. In addition, most spoofing devices on the market rely on bulky commercial GNSS signal simulators. In order to spoof the UAV in actual flight environments, this paper designs and implements a miniature GPS spoofer, and proposes a spoofing strategy for the calculation of the misleading position of the UAV. The model of the spoofing signal transmitted by the spoofer is established, and the difference of signal state parameter calculation between a spoofer and a common simulator is comparatively analyzed. Finally, a field test is conducted, where error position and velocity outputs of a commercial receiver and a target receiver onboard an UAV are under control. In addition, we successfully make the UAV land on the spoofing position by using the intelligent return function of the UAV. The results verify the correctness of the spoofing strategy and the signal model, as well as the effectiveness and feasibility of the designed spoofer.