TOMSK, Jul 8 – RIA Tomsk. A graduate of Tomsk State University (TSU) master's degree from Pakistan has developed new algorithms for drones to work in groups; they ensure reliable communication between drones and protect them from hacking, the university's website reported on Thursday.
It is specified that drones can be used to search for victims of man-made disasters or natural calamities, environmental monitoring, geological prospecting and so on. If a group of drones is used for these tasks, the process is accelerated, its efficiency and reliability are increased.
"Qazawat Zirak (Pakistan), a graduate of the master's degree program in Computer Engineering: Applied Al and Robotics of the Faculty of Innovative Technologies of TSU, has created new algorithms to ensure communication between drones working in a group. Through the use of blockchain technology and other tools, he managed to achieve high security of drones against hacking and transmission of false data," says the report.
"Communication is done in a three-coordinate space – height is added, which increases the complexity of building communication in a network. The drone's onboard computer must provide computational speed, but also be lightweight and consume little power. The new communication network was based on LoRaWAN technology," is specified in the release.
It is emphasized that drones can transmit only short messages to each other, the format of their "communication" is limited. To overcome these and other technical barriers, the TSU graduate developed new algorithmic solutions and created a data exchange protocol. Zirak has applied to postgraduate study at TSU and intends to bring a working version to a finished hardware and software product during his dissertation research.
"Through development, drones have learned to send each other messages in the right format up to two kilometers away. At the same time, they do not interrupt each other and broadcast data only when there is silence on the air. Previously, after transmitting each message the channel was silent for two seconds", says the website.