Analysis Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Research Articles

A systematic approach for threat and vulnerability analysis of unmanned aerial vehicles

The proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is expected to experience a substantial rise in the next years, driven by their ever-increasing application across various domains. However, ensuring secure communication between UAVs and their ground stations is crucial to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information that could jeopardize the mission’s integrity when exploited by malicious actors. Despite this importance, several UAV systems currently operate based on open-source command and control technologies, which have overlooked several security considerations while focusing on availability and safety. To address this concern, this study conducts a comprehensive security assessment of UAV-based systems starting with a systematic literature review whose main purpose is building a comprehensive catalog of threats associated with this technology. Particular attention has been paid to the MAVlink protocol, an open-source protocol commonly utilized for telemetry and command and control for multiple UAVs. Therefore, drawing upon the built catalog, a threat modeling and penetration testing technique has been employed to examine the MAVlink implementation on a real UAV. A threat model developed for a specific case study is also presented, leading to the discovery of four new vulnerabilities, some of which were successfully exploited through attacks. By shedding light on these vulnerabilities, this work seeks to encourage further investigation and research to develop robust security mechanisms for UAV communication systems. It is imperative to address these vulnerabilities proactively to enhance the overall security posture and safeguard against potential threats in the UAV ecosystem.

Comparative analysis of unmanned aerial vehicle and conventional spray systems for the maize fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera; Noctuidae) management

Comparative analysis of unmanned aerial vehicle and conventional spray systems for the maize fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera; Noctuidae) management

Segmentation Method of Concrete Small Cracks Based on UAV Images

Introduction: Cracks are one of the major problems in modern concrete buildings, especially in locations that are difficult to map manually, such as bridges and high-rise buildings. Accurate analysis of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images has become the key to determining whether a building needs maintenance. Methods: Traditional image processing methods are easily interfered by high-frequency background. Neural network methods need fine datasets, which increase labor costs. Therefore, this paper proposes a segmentation algorithm based on UNet3+ network. After obtaining the UAV image, the rough location of the crack can be obtained by only rough labeling. And then, the sample balance can be carried out by clipping the target area. The UNet3+ network is used to train the processed datasets and extract the region of interest to ignore the non-target texture. Finally, the region of interest is further segmented by color clustering and edge detection methods. Results: The proposed method can detect the cracks accurately. In all test images, the relative errors are less than 13%. Especially in test images whose width is less than 0.2mm, the maximum absolute error is only 0.0237mm, which is completely acceptable in actual production. The proposed method has higher practicability in the detection of concrete crack images taken by UAV. The results show that the proposed method outperforms the cutting-edge method published in the journal "Sensor", when the background is complex. Conclusion: The proposed method can segment and detect cracks effectively, which can remove the high-frequency interference region from the images.

Modelling and Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) for Medical Applications

Modelling and Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) for Medical Applications

Channel Modeling and Characteristics Analysis under Different 3D Dynamic Trajectories for UAV-Assisted Emergency Communications.

This study involved channel modeling and characteristics analysis of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) according to different operating trajectories. Based on the idea of standardized channel modeling, air-to-ground (AG) channel modeling of a UAV was carried out, taking into consideration that both the receiver (Rx) and the transmitter (Tx) ran along different types of trajectories. In addition, based on Markov chains and a smooth-turn (ST) mobility model, the influences of different operation trajectories on typical channel characteristics-including time-variant power delay profile (PDP), stationary interval, temporal autocorrelation function (ACF), root mean square (RMS) delay spread (DS), and spatial cross-correlation function (CCF)-were studied. The multi-mobility multi-trajectory UAV channel model matched well with actual operation scenarios, and the characteristics of the UAV AG channel could be analyzed more accurately, thus providing a reference for future system design and sensor network deployment of sixth-generation (6G) UAV-assisted emergency communications.

Performance Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for Improved Aerial Surveillance

Performance Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for Improved Aerial Surveillance

Performance Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Assisted Wireless IoT Sensors Based on Air-to-Ground Communication Model for Smart Farming

Performance Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Assisted Wireless IoT Sensors Based on Air-to-Ground Communication Model for Smart Farming

Joint channel model for fog and atmospheric turbulence and performance analysis of unmanned aerial vehicles’ free-space optical communication

To study the joint effects of turbulence and fog on free-space optical (FSO) communication, a joint fog-turbulence-pointing error probability model for FSO is derived based on the random fog channel, Malaga turbulence model, and pointing error model. The closed-form expressions for the average signal to noise ratio (SNR), outage probability, average bit error rate (BER), ergodic channel capacity, and moment generating function in FSO communication under intensity modulation/direct detection are derived based on the joint model. Based on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) working scenario, applying these expressions, the performance analysis of the inter-UAVs optical wave communication is implemented under the conditions for different beam widths, turbulence intensity and fog density and the pointing error caused by position, orientation, and jitter deviations. The calculated results are in good agreement with the Monte Carlo simulations. The analytical results for the average BER and outage probability show that the increase in beam width can significantly degrade the BER and outage probability, for the UAVs optical communication link. The analysis for the ergodic channel capacity shows that it increases with the increase of average transmission power; however, it increases slowly with the increase of beam width. And the increase in turbulence intensity, fog density, and drone jitter will degrade the communication performance of the system. Our study lays an important theoretical foundation for the development of FSO communication and UAV communication performance improvement in joint fog and turbulent environment.

A General Framework for UAV-aided THz Communications Subject to Generalized Geometric Loss

In this article, we develop a general framework for the performance analysis of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aided terahertz (THz) communications under generalized geometric loss, which considers the fluctuations of the UAV's position and orientation alongside the non-orthogonality of the THz beam with respect to the detector plane. In particular, we derive general and novel analytical expressions for the probability density function and the cumulative distribution function of the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) under generalized fading channels subject to generalized geometric loss. Consequently, novel, general, and accurate analytical expressions for the outage probability, average symbol error rate, and average channel capacity are derived. Furthermore, approximate asymptotic expressions in the high SNR regime are also derived. Moreover, A very accurate approximate expression for the channel capacity is also provided in the low SNR regime. As an example, the system performance under the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$</tex-math></inline-formula> - <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula> fading channel model is analyzed in terms of the above-mentioned performance metrics.

ANALYSIS OF THE FEATURES OF THE USE UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES BY THE ARMED FORCES OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION DURING A FULL-SCALE ARMED INVASION

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles allows the countries that use them to significantly reduce the loss of manpower and equipment during the combat mission and at the same time significantly increase the effectiveness of the use of high-precision and conventional means of destruction. The greatest experience in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles was acquired by countries that are actually advanced in terms of military technology (in particular, the USA, Israel, Turkey, etc.), which took an active part in armed conflicts in the Middle East, the North Caucasus, etc. In addition, in modern conditions, the threat of uncontrolled spread of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles of a light class, which can be used for the purpose of carrying out terrorist acts on important state and military facilities, is growing. Unmanned aerial vehicles have become so important to success on the battlefield that they are sometimes used by the military to destroy enemy drones. In addition, it is with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles that one side receives the coordinates of military targets and command posts of the opposite side, which are subsequently destroyed by accurate artillery strikes. In the article, based on the analysis of modern wars and armed conflicts, combat experience and features of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles of the armed forces of the russian federation, an analysis of unmanned aerial vehicles for typical tasks, in particular, conducting reconnaissance, adjusting fire, striking and electronic warfare, was carried out. In particular, the conducted analysis indicates a tendency to increase the scale of use of unmanned aerial vehicles by the armed forces of the russian federation in conditions of a full-scale armed conflict (not excluded due to the end of stocks of high-precision missiles), in contrast to the experience of the combat use of individual unmanned aerial vehicles in the East of the country and the expansion of the range of tasks.

Unmanned aerial vehicles: Applications, techniques, and challenges as aerial base stations

Next generation wireless networks are expected to be greatly supported by unmanned aerial vehicles, which can act as aerial base stations and constitute a promising solution for the exorbitant rise in user demands. This is possible because of unmanned aerial vehicle characteristics such as mobility, flexibility, increased line-of-sight probability, and their ability to access unreachable locations. Extensive research is now widely performed on the deployment, performance analysis, resource management, trajectory optimization, and channel modeling in such networks. This survey article focuses on the different applications and the related algorithms for realizing aerial base stations by thoroughly reviewing each related research area. In a nutshell, this article provides key applications, challenges, and the technology used for the design and analysis of unmanned aerial vehicles as base stations.

Quality-of-Service-Centric Design and Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

Recent years have witnessed rapid development and great indignation burgeoning in the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) field. This growth of UAV-related research contributes to several challenges, including inter-communication from vehicle to vehicle, transportation coverage, network information gathering, network interworking effectiveness, etc. Due to ease of usage, UAVs have found novel applications in various areas such as agriculture, defence, security, medicine, and observation for traffic-monitoring applications. This paper presents an innovative drone system by designing and developing a blended-wing-body (BWB)-based configuration for next-generation drone use cases. The proposed method has several benefits, including a very low interference drag, evenly distributed load inside the body, and less radar signature compared to the state-of-the-art configurations. During the entire procedure, a standard design approach was followed to optimise the BWB framework for next-generation use cases by considering the typically associated parameters such as vertical take-off and landing and drag and stability of the BWB. Extensive simulation experiments were performed to carry out a performance analysis of the proposed model in a software-based environment. To further confirm that the model design of the BWB-UAV is fit to execute the targeted missions, the real-time working environments were tested through advanced numerical simulation and focused on avoiding cost and unwanted wastages. To enhance the trustworthiness of this said computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, grid convergence test-based validation was also conducted. Two different grid convergence tests were conducted on the induced velocity of the Version I UAV and equivalent stress of the Version II UAV. Finite element analysis-based computations were involved in estimating structural outcomes. Finally, the mesh quality was obtained as 0.984 out of 1. The proposed model is very cost-effective for performing a different kind of manoeuvring activities with the help of its unique design at reasonable mobility speed and hence can be modelled for high-speed-based complex next-generation use cases.

Analysis on security-related concerns of unmanned aerial vehicle: attacks, limitations, and recommendations.

Over time, the use of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)/drones has increased across several civil and military application domains. Such domains include real-time monitoring, remote sensing, wireless coverage in disaster areas, search and rescue, product delivery, surveillance, security, agriculture, civil infrastructure inspection, and the like. This rapid growth is opening doors to numerous opportunities and conveniences in everyday life. On the other hand, security and privacy concerns for unmanned aerial vehicles/drones are progressively increasing. With limited standardization and regulation of unmanned aerial vehicles/drones, security and privacy concerns are growing. This paper presents a brief analysis of unmanned aerial vehicle's/drones security and privacy-related concerns. The paper also presents countermeasures and recommendations to address such concerns. While laying out a brief survey of unmanned aerial vehicles/drones, the paper also provides readers with up-to-date information on existing regulations, classification, architecture, and communication methods. It also discusses application areas, vulnerabilities, existing countermeasures against different attacks, and related limitations. In the end, the paper concludes with a discussion on open research areas and recommendations on how the security and privacy of unmanned aerial vehicles can be improved.

Structural and CFD Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle by using COMSOL Multiphysics

The purpose of this article is to reduce the structural weight and drag of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone while increasing its endurance. To achieve a high strength to weight ratio, Finite Element Analysis is used to study the structural strength characteristics of UAV frames. A computational fluid dynamic analysis (CFD) is performed for different angles of attack and vehicle speeds to estimate the drag coefficient using the k-e turbulence model. The analysis results show that the designed UAV vehicle has excellent performance characteristics and stability at 5° AoA and 3 m/sec. This article outlines the overall design of the unmanned aerial vehicle, which was created using the CATIA V6 platform. COMSOL 5.6 software is used for structural and CFD analysis.

UAVs Support to Naval Operations

Abstract The paper proposes an analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) features that enable them to support naval operations in general, but the focus drawn to the Black Sea basin peculiarities in particular. In the introductory part, the authors succinctly present the Black Sea basin’s physical and strategic characteristics. Then, follows a description of UAVs features and potential missions conducted by these types of robots. In the next section, the article presents the uninhabited aerial vehicle classification and system components. The last chapter analyses the efficiencies and vulnerabilities of these vehicles. The closing section gives some short conclusions regarding the suitability of using such assets to support naval operations and a few further research directions..

Aerodynamic analysis of unmanned aerial vehicle with hawk shape for monitoring oil leakage

The oil pipeline network requires periodic monitoring to detect pipeline damages, which may cause oil leakage with severe environmental contamination. These damages can be generated by interference from third parties such as construction works, sabotage, vandalism, excavations,and illegal oil theft. Todetect the oil pipeline damages,it canbeusedaerodynamic aerial vehicles (UAVs) with infrared cameras and image processing systems. This paperpresents the aerodynamic analysis of a UAV with a hawk shape (wingspan of 2.20 m and length of 1.49 m) for potential application in the detection of oil pipeline failures. A 1:6.5 scale prototype of the UAV is fabricated using a 3D printer. The aerodynamic coefficients of UAV are determined using computational fluiddynamic (CFD) simulations and experimental testing with a subsonic wind tunnel. In addition, the lift and drag coefficients of UAVsare obtained as a function of Reynolds number and angle of attack. Also, the air velocity profile around UAV is estimated with the CFD model. The proposed UAV could decrease the inspection costs of pipeline networks in comparison with the use of helicopters or light aircraft.

Economic Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Provided Mobile Services

Due to its agility and mobility, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a promising technology to provide high-quality mobile services (e.g., fast Internet access, edge computing, and local caching) to ground users. The Internet service providers (ISPs) directly or commission the third-party UAV firms to provide UAV-provided services (UPS) to improve and make up for the shortage of their current mobile services for additional profit. Yet the UAV has limited energy storage and needs to fly to serve users locally, requiring an optimal energy allocation for balancing both hovering time and service capacity. For profit-maximizing purpose, when hovering in a hotspot, how the UAV should dynamically price its capacity-limited UPS according to randomly arriving users with private service valuations is another question. This paper first introduce a threshold-based assignment policy to show how the UAV decides to serve the users or not under complete information that a user’s service valuation can be observed when he arrives. Following this benchmark, we analyze the UAV’s optimal pricing under incomplete information about the users’ random arrival and private service valuations. It is proved that the UAV should ask for a higher price if the leftover hovering time is longer or its service capacity is smaller, and its expected profit approaches to that under complete user information if the hovering time is sufficiently large. Then, based on the optimal pricing, the energy allocation to hovering time and service capacity in a hotspot is optimized. We show that as the hotspot’s user occurrence rate increases, a shorter hovering time or a larger service capacity should be allocated. Finally, when a UAV faces multiple hotspot candidates with different user occurrence rates and flying distances, we prove that it is optimal to deploy the UAV to serve a single hotspot, by taking the optimal pricing and energy allocation of each hotspot into consideration. With multiple UAVs, however, this result can be reversed with UAVs’ forking deployment to different hotspots, especially when hotspots are more symmetric or the UAV number is large. Perhaps surprisingly, more UAVs may be deployed to the second-best hotspot rather than the first-best one.

Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Forest Remote Sensing—A Systematic Review. Part I: A General Framework

Natural, semi-natural, and planted forests are a key asset worldwide, providing a broad range of positive externalities. For sustainable forest planning and management, remote sensing (RS) platforms are rapidly going mainstream. In a framework where scientific production is growing exponentially, a systematic analysis of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based forestry research papers is of paramount importance to understand trends, overlaps and gaps. The present review is organized into two parts (Part I and Part II). Part II inspects specific technical issues regarding the application of UAV-RS in forestry, together with the pros and cons of different UAV solutions and activities where additional effort is needed, such as the technology transfer. Part I systematically analyzes and discusses general aspects of applying UAV in natural, semi-natural and artificial forestry ecosystems in the recent peer-reviewed literature (2018–mid-2020). The specific goals are threefold: (i) create a carefully selected bibliographic dataset that other researchers can draw on for their scientific works; (ii) analyze general and recent trends in RS forest monitoring (iii) reveal gaps in the general research framework where an additional activity is needed. Through double-step filtering of research items found in the Web of Science search engine, the study gathers and analyzes a comprehensive dataset (226 articles). Papers have been categorized into six main topics, and the relevant information has been subsequently extracted. The strong points emerging from this study concern the wide range of topics in the forestry sector and in particular the retrieval of tree inventory parameters often through Digital Aerial Photogrammetry (DAP), RGB sensors, and machine learning techniques. Nevertheless, challenges still exist regarding the promotion of UAV-RS in specific parts of the world, mostly in the tropical and equatorial forests. Much additional research is required for the full exploitation of hyperspectral sensors and for planning long-term monitoring.

Capacity Analysis of IRS-Based UAV Communications With Imperfect Phase Compensation

This letter presents the capacity analysis of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) communications supported by flying intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs). In the considered system, some of the UAVs are equipped with an IRS panel that applies certain phase-shifts to the incident waves before being reflected to the receiving UAV. In contrast to existing work, this letter considers the effect of imperfect phase knowledge on the system capacity, where the phase error is modeled as a von Mises random variable with parameter κ. Analytical results, corroborated by Monte Carlo simulations, show that the achievable capacity is dependent on the phase error, however, the capacity loss becomes negligible at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and when κ ≥ 6.

Rationale for the type of unmanned aerial vehicle for trichogramma settlement

Annotation Purpose. Improving the quality of distribution of technological material on the field surface by substantiating the rational type of unmanned aerial vehicle. Methods. Analytical study of the design of unmanned aerial vehicles. Theoretical study of the movement of a particle of technological material. Results. The application of mineral fertilizers and plant protection products against pests by unmanned aerial vehicles is one of the most promising technologies today. Depending on the type of unmanned aerial vehicle, their advantages and disadvantages are determined, which directly affect the quality of the technological operation. Theoretical studies of the motion of a particle of technological material from the dosing and scattering device to the soil surface depending on the type of aircraft, which established the influence of air flows on the quality of distribution of technological material on the field surface. According to the results of field tests of the dosing and scattering device, the performance of the aircraft is determined depending on its type. Conclusions 1. An analysis of unmanned aerial vehicles has shown that multicopters and aircraft have both advantages and disadvantages. Aircraft have higher speed and performance, and multicopters have greater flight stabilization. 2. When applying technological material by multicopters, the quality of distribution is lower in comparison with airplanes due to squatting by air currents of propellers. 3. With increasing speed from 5 to 15 m/s at a height of 5 m, the width of the grip increased from 6 m to 7 m, which increased by 116.6 %. At a displacement of 15 m, the width of the grip increased by 125 %. 4. When changing the height of movement of the dosing and spreading device from 5 to 15 m at a speed of 5 m/s the width of capture increased from 6 m to 8 m, i.e. by 132.4 %, and at a speed of 15 m/s the width of capture increased from 7 m to 10 m, which corresponds to 141.6 %. 5. As a result of the industrial inspection of the dosing and scattering device for settling the trichogram, it was found that the productivity of the aircraft is 2 times higher compared to the multicopter, due to the speed and is 120 ha/h. Keywords: trichogramma settlement, agricultural multicopter, unmanned aerial vehicle, biological plant protection, settlement rate, capture width.