Drone Forensics: Digital Flight Log Examination Framework for Micro Drones

Abstract

In the early 1990s, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) were solely a domain of the military use by various developed countries. Now, the ease of availability and affordability in the electronic device market, this aerial vehicular technology has augmented its familiarity in public. However, expanded use of UAVs, colloquially known as drones is raising understandable security perturbs. Because of their abilities to get close-in to potential targets, drones are thought to present a threat and, therefore, the investigation of crimes committed by UAVs is a much-needed facet currently. This motivated us to devise a forensics framework proficient enough of examining the drone's activities after its flight. In particular, this paper analyzes the essential major log parameters of the autonomous drone and proposes a comprehensive drone-forensics related software architecture with preliminary results. Our under-development software will provide a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) to allow users extract and examine the on-board flight information. This would provide the forensic science community with a tool for investigating drone-related crime cases.