Blockchain for the Internet of Drones: Applications, Challenges, and Future Directions

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which started as a byproduct of military research, are passing through their most popular period and are being used on broader horizons, and more possibilities are being explored in commercial applications. The evolution of drones is quite interesting, and this article provides some of the key chronology of different time quanta related to the emergence of drones in the global market. During this journey, the size-shape-form of drones has also evolved; thus, different drone topologies are also discussed here. In addition, we have considered the wide range of drone applications (every nook and cranny) for a comprehensive discussion. This article discusses the emergence of the Internet of Drones and its industrial application perspective. Currently, its advancement brings key concerns, and security has always been a concern for these manless machines. Thus, we highlight the key security concerns and then propose the trending blockchain as a key solution for these concerns. However, blockchain-drone coalescence has always witnessed key concerns in the research community. We discuss these concerns, and furthermore present some derived blockchain architectures that tend to resolve these concerns. The latter part of this article presents a case study for drone-based community delivery in pandemic-like situations using a derived blockchain architecture. The article concludes with the key open issues and future challenges.