I watched a drone swarm on TV and was fascinated about how they worked. Could you just buy them off the shelf and program them yourself?
Turned out that the answer was no.
Drone swarms work like a hive mind using complex code. Each drone has a copy of the code along with its own set of instructions. They can be lighter and smaller than other drones as they don’t need all the recording and camera gear. Instead they use GPS and sensors to move and position themselves. Then depending on their function they move and activate LED lights or smoke canisters.
There is no master drone as the whole swarm could fail if something happens to the master. Instead they act independently. They are aware of each other via communications and sensors and should a drone fail another can take its place.
Custom software such as DroneShow is used to program and test the swarm. GPS coordinates are used to define a safety boundary outside which the drones cannot go, known as a geo-fence. This prevents the drones from harming the audience or drifting over private land causing security and safety issues.
A fall-back system may also be available whereby the swarm could be controlled from a base station should there be a problem such as a loss of GPS signal or to land the drones due to a failure.
Tag: drone
Ways drones could be used and abused
I’ve been thinking about drones recently. I have a friend that races them, a neighbour that has one to map out the local area, and I own a tiny in-door one myself. Drones seem to be growing in popularity and so I started looking into the security implications of drones and noted all the ways that drones could be hacked, used and abused.
Here’s my list:
– Crashed on purpose or flown into obstacles, vehicles, or people.
– Used for remote surveillance, monitoring, eavesdropping, shoulder-surfing of keypad entry use, invasion of personal privacy.
– To steal other drones using techniques such as jamming and spoofing. See Samy Kamkar’s Skyjack experiment as an example.
– To steal on-board data from other drones. Drones have digital storage for video, image, and audio recorded data. This could be stolen. Also the interception of the data streams that a drone sends back to its base station could be intercepted.
– To steal wireless data. Drones can be used to intercept Wifi, Bluetooth, RFID, ZigBee, and any other wireless data by carrying the appropriate hacking tools and communications equipment. The drone can be flown within range of the target communications signals and then spoof and hack its way in. It could even be flown onto an office building roof in order to become a WiFi pineapple device then return to base with no human required to access the target location.
– To deliver contraband across borders, fences, and other restricted areas.
– To hack vehicles by flying above the vehicle and employing vehicle hacking technology.
– To create a communications network. Instead of using the cell towers of a communications company a network of drones with specialist on-board software and equipment could act as a mobile cell network to provide communications for an organisation preventing eavesdropping from the authorities.
– To map out locations and buildings in greater detail than Google streetview and Google Earth can offer.
– To disable security cameras in an area by locating the cameras and using various techniques such as IR to disable the cameras for a period of time before criminals access the location.
– To assist with heists from vehicle hijacks to museum robberies.
Can you think of any others?