Patil, Unmesh Uttam (Oregon State University), Choi, Jinhong (Oregon State University), Abbas, Houssam (Oregon State University)

OUT-HERD: Opportunistic UAV Takeover for Herding Malfunctioning Drones

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "Transportation Security" (ThBT8), Thursday, September 26, 2024, 14:50−15:10, Salon 16

2024 IEEE 27th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), September 24- 27, 2024, Edmonton, Canada

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on December 26, 2024

Abstract

We present an opportunistic method to commandeer already-flying UAVs for herding malfunctioning UAVs to safety. Malfunctioning UAVs, which deviate from their path due to a planning or a communication failure, pose a safety risk, and it is important to develop methods for mitigating that risk in various circumstances. Here we focus on the case when the Defender (e.g. the airport authority or provider of service) cannot deploy its own UAVs, and taking down the malfunctioning UAV poses an unacceptable risk to people on the ground. In such a case, we propose that the Defender commandeer other flying UAVs to herd the malfunctioning UAV to safety by temporarily spoofing their state estimate. Leveraging Remote ID (a new FAA requirement for UAVs) and existing methods for spoofing state estimation, the Defender dynamically adapts its herding to the evolving situation, effectively guiding malfunctioning UAVs away from restricted airspace or sensitive zones. Our results, validated through extensive simulations (studying multiple herder and target configurations) and small-scale real-world experiments, demonstrate the efficacy of our approach in mitigating UAV intrusion incidents and enhancing airspace security.