Secure Data Collection Using Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In recent years, drones have become a practical solution for data collection in both academic and commercial fields. The use of drones allows users to collect data without disrupting the environment and keep safe from dangerous areas such as: military operations and surveillance in locations where maneuverability is difficult. The different data collected via unmanned aerial vehicles include field work GPS coordinates, environmental quality measurements, photographs/video and much more. The data collected by unmanned aerial vehicles may contain sensitive information, leading to an increased value on the security of that data. Without proper security services, information may be used in unforeseen, or even malicious ways, such as planting false information or leaking particularly sensitive data. In this paper we introduce a secure data collection method from wireless sensor nodes using autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles. We built a sensor node with multiple sensors designed to collect data for rainfall, temperature, humidity, ultra violet index, and soil moisture. Along with another sensor node with sensors used to collect data from water, we created a wireless sensor network where the sensor data was collected using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The sensor nodes collected environmental data through several sensors which are securely stored in the sensor node itself. The collected data was then transferred securely to a central node mounted on a DJI F450 Flamewheel quad-copter, which was loaded with a predetermined flight path via Mission Planner to perform the autonomous flight. Aside from previous environmental focus, technical improvements were made such as adding a solar battery to the sensor node and implementing energy efficiency in the nodes’ systems while the drone collected data autonomously during a predetermined flight path. This project served as a proof-of-concept that communication with a wireless sensor node has the capability to be deployed for data collection in remote areas efficiently and effectively while maintaining a low power and energy consumption.