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The can-sized satellite, ScoreSAT satellite is a small communications satellite. ScoreSAT helps to develop a platform for finding directions and the exact spot where a lack of communications signal occurs, as well as a realtime visual feed for analysis of communication during and after landing. The project focuses on the design of ScoreSAT and provides a real-time system for capturing real-time data during descent. The objective of the realtime system is to improve the accuracy and location of ScoreSAT data collection, which can provide pressure, humidity, temperature, altitude, latitude, and longitude readings. The main components of this platform are the hardware design that comprises the flight controller, GPS module, and telemetry kit, the software design, which are Mission Planner, and the realtime system (RTS). Based on the entire research, the compact design of the ScoreSAT and ground station was developed to provide alternative meteorological parameter monitoring to complement primary meteorology ground observation such as weather station and radiosonde and to enhance the reliability of the remote sensing observation for environmental studies concerning the factors determining the environment and atmospheric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Qadisiyah Computer Science & Mathematics is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Research on drone systems is expanding rapidly and finds application in many fields. These systems provide powerful and precise means in several domains from surveillance to agriculture. If we look inside a drone system, we will find several parts: the aerial vehicle(s), the onboard sensors, a computing device, and the autopilot, a communication network, a ground control station, control software, and a security module, encrypting commands and messages. In a multi-drone application, the system becomes more complex and coordination along with synchronization of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) forms the strategic parts of the whole system. This manuscript focuses on an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) application and investigates a complete HW/SW architecture for a number of deployments where the secure control architecture is based on the MAVLink protocol for automatic control of the UAVs fully enabled by audio and video acquisition and processing. Indeed, one of the key features and novelties introduced by this proposal is the combined use of audio and video inputs, in order to provide a more precise and robust detection of targets and the related reaction of the system. The proposed system setup, user control scheme, ciphering and synchronization methods, and the related experiments are explored for laying the basis for future ideas and developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. Developing a system of remote communication via mobile internet and SMS messages between a ground control station and a drone integrated with a microcomputer. Methodology. Experiments were conducted on an FPV-drone with a flight controller that is physically integrated with a Raspberry Pi 5 microcomputer via UART protocol. As a mobile network source a mobile USB-dongle with a Ukrainian SIM-card was used. An Ubuntu virtual private server was rented and set up. MAVLink communication between the drone and a ground control station was set up using MAVLink Router application and a middleware server. Helper systemd services and bash scripts were set up on the server and the drone microcomputer to initiate a connection on system start and in case of failure. As a ground control system QGroundControl was used. Mobile USB-dongle was set up to support serial ports which accept AT commands. Python scripts to monitor and send SMS messages were developed. Findings. Implemented communication between a drone and a ground control station via mobile network. Originality. According to the results of the research, developed instruments with combination of which the risk of communication loss between a drone and a ground control station can be reduced. Practical value. The results can be used to implement a remote communication system between a drone and a ground control station and to plan autonomous flight missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a significant surge in unmanned aerial vehicles' (UAVs) popularity with an ongoing increase in demand due to their multi-functional uses. The capacity of the UAVs to respond to society and industry needs account for their pervasiveness. UAVs can be strategically deployed to enhance network efficiency and support critical missions, including vital tasks like infrastructure monitoring operations. To be effective, a UAV must interact securely with its network's entities, such as ground control stations, other UAVs, air traffic control systems, and navigation satellite systems. UAVs are exposed to a dangerous and costly world of cyber dangers as a result of cyber technology and connections. The UAV and the Ground Control Station (GCS) exchange information using communication lines, which are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. As a result, detective, defensive, and preventative countermeasures are critical. The Micro Air Vehicle Link (MAVLink) protocol is a widely used lightweight communication protocol for enabling communication between UAVs and GCSs. It outlines communication exchanges between a GCS and a UAV. It carries information about the UAV's condition as well as commands for control from the GCS. Although widely used, the MAVLink protocol lacks sufficient security measures and is susceptible to various types of attacks, which can pose significant risks to public safety. UAV data should be encrypted because they are very sensitive. To give a high level of security, complex operation encryption techniques are developed. These mathematical operations bring forth issues with efficiency and power usage, though. One of these methods, the ChaCha cipher, recently gained popularity after Google used it in several applications. In the current study, a new stream cipher method with low-duty cycles is proposed for protecting data in UAVs and is compared with existing security algorithms on the basis of various factors. The research findings show that by including the suggested method in MAVLink, it is possible to maintain both message secrecy and battery life for a resource-constrained UAV. This can be done while using comparable amounts of memory and CPU and without affecting MAVLink's performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time flight controllers are becoming dependent on general-purpose operating systems, as the modularity and complexity of guidance, navigation, and control systems and algorithms increases. The non-deterministic nature of operating systems creates a critical weakness in the development of motion control systems for robotic platforms due to the random delays introduced by operating systems and communication networks. The high-speed operation and sensitive dynamics of UAVs demand fast and near-deterministic communication between the sensors, companion computer, and flight control unit (FCU) in order to achieve the required performance. In this paper, we present a method to assess communications latency between a companion computer and an RTOS open-source flight controller, which is based on an XRCE-DDS bridge between clients hosted in the low-resource environment and the DDS network used by ROS2. A comparison based on the measured statistics of latency illustrates the advantages of XRCE-DDS compared to the standard communication method based on MAVROS-MAVLink. More importantly, an algorithm to estimate latency offset and clock skew based on an exponential moving average filter is presented, providing a tool for latency estimation and correction that can be used by developers to improve synchronization of processes that rely on timely communication between the FCU and companion computer, such as synchronization of lower-level sensor data at the higher-level layer. This addresses the challenges introduced in GNC applications by the non-deterministic nature of general-purpose operating systems and the inherent limitations of standard flight controller hardware. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An autonomous driving control system for a robotic mower was designed using a low-cost dual-frequency global navigation satellite system (GNSS) compass, a low-cost dual-frequency real-time kinematic GNSS (RTK-GNSS), and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). The intended application is to save labor by autonomously mowing sloped terrains. To investigate the effectiveness of the prototype GNSS compass on an inclined terrain, the roll, pitch, and yaw angles were varied using an inclined stage, and the heading accuracy was evaluated. The root mean square (RMS) of the heading error was within 1.5° when the roll and pitch angles were both less than 45°. Autonomous driving tests were conducted on the slope of an agricultural dam with an incline of approximately 25°. The prototype GNSS compass was capable of continuous and consistent heading measurements even on the slope. The cross-track error for the set path was 7.2 cm RMS when starting near the top and driving down the slope. When the robot started near the bottom of the slope and ran up, the crosstrack error was 6.6 cm RMS. For the mower and experimental conditions used in this study, this was sufficient accuracy for autonomous driving when mowing on a slope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern era, new and innovative ways of securing data and communications are continuously developing. One such recent development is using the concept of DNA as a means of data encryption. In this work, we propose a new approach to encrypt data and communications on the MAVLink protocol for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) using a lightweight GIFT algorithm and dynamic DNA coding (with binary bits). MAVLink is a communication protocol for UAVs, which is currently unencrypted and can easily be intercepted by anyone. As such, a secure MAVLink protocol has long been needed in the UAV industry. We describe a novel secure communication protocol for UAVs using dynamic DNA coding to encrypt MAVLink packets, which we call DMAV. Experimental results show that this novel means of securing the MAVLink protocol performs better than the traditional method (i.e., using public and private key cryptography). Therefore, the proposed approach could potentially change the way secure communications are conducted between UAVs in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Los vehículos no tripulados (UAV) con multirrotores, cuentan con un sistema de control que se enfoca principalmente en buscar la estabilidad del vehículo durante el vuelo, sin embargo, no le permite detectar o prever cuando se presenta un fallo, y muchas veces no responde de la mejor manera. En este artículo se presenta inicialmente 9 categorías de fallos que se podrían encontrar durante el vuelo de un UAV, además se presenta el diseño de una red neuronal recurrente capaz de detectar patrones en las series de datos tomadas de un conjunto de sensores, montados sobre el dron. Se presenta la comparación de dos redes diferentes, la LSTM y la GRU, donde se demuestra que la red GRU es la más apropiada para este tipo de problema, obteniéndose hasta un 97% de éxito con los datos de entrenamiento utilizados. Además, se propone una respuesta a los fallos por medio de un protocolo de comunicación llamado MAVLink, que informaría al usuario de la presencia del fallo, además de desconectar el motor de ser necesario.

IoT (Internet of Things) emerges from various technologies such as communications, micro processors and embedded system and so on. The IoT has also been used to UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) system. In manned aircraft, a pilot and co-pilot should control FCS (Flight Control System) with FBW(Fly By Wire) system for flight operation. In contrast, the flight operation in UAV system is remotely and fully managed by GCS (Ground Control System) almost in real time. To make it possible the communication channel should be necessary between the UAV and the GCS. There are many protocols between two systems. Amongst them, MAVLink (Macro Air Vehicle Link) protocol is representatively used due to its open architecture. MAVLink does not define any securities itself, which results in high vulnerability from external attacks. This paper proposes the method to enhance data security in GCS network by applying cryptographic methods to the MAVLink messages in order to support safe UAV operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The micro air vehicle link (MAVLink in short) is a communication protocol for unmanned systems (e.g., drones and robots). It specifies a comprehensive set of messages exchanged between unmanned systems and ground stations. This protocol is used in major autopilot systems, mainly ArduPilot and PX4, and provides powerful features not only for monitoring and controlling unmanned systems missions but also for their integration into the Internet. However, there is no technical survey and/or tutorial in the literature that presents these features or explains how to make use of them. Most of the references are online tutorials and basic technical reports, and none of them presents comprehensive and systematic coverage of the protocol. In this paper, we address this gap, and we propose an overview of the MAVLink protocol, the difference between its versions, and it is potential in enabling Internet connectivity to unmanned systems. We also discuss the security aspects of the MAVLink. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first technical survey and tutorial on the MAVLink protocol, which represents an important reference for unmanned systems users and developers.

As the number of research activities and practical deployments of unmanned vehicles has shown a rapid growth, topics related to their communication with operator and external infrastructure became of high importance. As a result a trend of employing IP communication for this purpose is emerging and can be expected to bring significant advantages. However, its employment can be expected to be most effective using broadband communication technologies such as Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). To verify the effectiveness of such an approach in a specific case of surface unmanned vehicles, the paper includes an overview of IP-based MAVLink communication advantages and requirements, followed by a laboratory and field-experiment study of selected WLAN technologies, compared to popular narrowband communication solutions. The conclusions confirm the general applicability of IP/WLAN communication for surface unmanned vehicles, providing an overview of their advantages and pointing out deployment requirements.

Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or the so-called drones, have been used in various applications. In particular, UAVs are used for rescue systems, disaster detection, and military purposes, as well as for leisure and commercial purposes. UAVs that are controlled over networks by ground control stations (GCS) can provide various services with expanded activity area. It is thus of critical importance to investigate the vulnerability of the drone system. In this paper, we focus on UAVs controlled by GCS over networks. We analyze the vulnerability of the micro-air-vehicle communication (MAVLink) protocol, which is one of the most widely adopted communication protocols for GCS-based control of UAVs. Then, by exploiting the vulnerability of the MAVLink protocol, we propose an attack methodology that can disable an ongoing mission of a UAV. Our empirical study confirms that the proposed attack can stop the attacked UAV and disable the mission.

Abstract 1 1 Video demonstrations and a video presentation providing a summary of the paper can be found at https://goo.gl/EDvxhk. Low-cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are increasingly gaining interest for enabling novel commercial and civil Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. However, there are still open challenges that restrain their real-world deployment. First, drones typically have limited wireless communication ranges with the ground stations preventing their control over large distances. Second, these low-cost aerial platforms have limited computation and energy resources preventing them from running heavy applications onboard. In this paper, we address this gap and we present Dronemap Planner (DP), a service-oriented cloud-based drone management system that controls, monitors and communicates with drones over the Internet. DP allows seamless communication with the drones over the Internet, which enables their control anywhere and anytime without restriction on distance. In addition, DP provides access to cloud computing resources for drones to offload heavy computations. It virtualizes the access to drones through Web services (SOAP and REST), schedules their missions, and promotes collaboration between drones. DP supports two communication protocols: (i.) the MAVLink protocol, which is a lightweight message marshaling protocol supported by commodities Ardupilot-based drones. (ii.) the ROSLink protocol, which is a communication protocol that we developed to integrate Robot Operating System (ROS)-enabled robots into the IoT. We present several applications and proof-of-concepts that were developed using DP. We demonstrate the effectiveness of DP through a performance evaluation study using a real drone for a real-time tracking application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in multi-rotor vehicle control and miniaturization of hardware, sensing, and battery technologies have enabled cheap, practical design of micro air vehicles for civilian and hobby applications. In parallel, several applications are being envisioned that bring together a swarm of multiple networked micro air vehicles to accomplish large tasks in coordination. However, it is still very challenging to deploy multiple micro air vehicles concurrently. To address this challenge, we have developed an open software/hardware platform called the University at Buffalo's Airborne Networking and Communications Testbed (UB-ANC), and an associated emulation framework called the UB-ANC Emulator. In this paper, we present the UB-ANC Emulator, which combines multi-micro air vehicle planning and control with high-fidelity network simulation, enables practitioners to design micro air vehicle swarm applications in software and provides seamless transition to deployment on actual hardware. We demonstrate the UB-ANC Emulator's accuracy against experimental data collected in two mission scenarios: a simple mission with three networked micro air vehicles and a sophisticated coverage path planning mission with a single micro air vehicle. To accurately reflect the performance of a micro air vehicle swarm where communication links are subject to interference and packet losses, and protocols at the data link, network, and transport layers affect network throughput, latency, and reliability, we integrate the opensource discrete-event network simulator ns-3 into the UB-ANC Emulator. We demonstrate through node-to-node and end-to-end measurements how the UB-ANC Emulator can be used to simulate multiple networked micro air vehicles with accurate modeling of mobility, control, wireless channel characteristics, and network protocols defined in ns-3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the popularity and the number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) increases, new protocols are needed to coordinate UAVs when flying autonomously, and to avoid that these UAVs collide with each other. Directly testing such novel protocols on real UAVs is a complex procedure that requires investing much time, money and research effort. Hence, it becomes necessary to have the possibility to first test different solutions using simulation. Unfortunately, existing tools present significant limitations: some of them only simulate accurately the flight behavior of one UAV, while some other simulators can manage several UAVs simultaneously, but not in real-time, thus loosing accuracy regarding the mobility pattern of the UAV. In this work we address such problem by introducing ArduSim, a novel simulator that allows controlling in soft real-time the flight and communications of multiple UAVs, being the developed protocols directly portable to real devices. The contributions of this work include: (i) the ArduSim simulation platform, which allows realistic simulation and control of multiple UAVs simultaneously, offering functionalities not provided by existing alternatives; (ii) a model for the WiFi communications link between UAVs, based on real experiments, and that is integrated into ArduSim itself; and (iii) a thorough study of the scalability performance of our simulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Electronics & Control Systems is the property of National Aviation University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper we explain the structure and development of a trajectory management system on board a UAV capable to achieve complex trajectories and versatile to adapt disturbances during flight. This system is built in Python and runs in a companion computer on board the UAV while maintains communication with a ground station over a radio link.