One prominent security threat that targets unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is the capture via global positioning system (GPS) spoofing in which an attacker manipulates a UAV’s GPS signals in order to capture it. Given the anticipated widespread deployment of UAVs for various purposes, it is imperative to develop new security solutions against such attacks. In this article, a mathematical framework is introduced for analyzing and mitigating the effects of GPS spoofing attacks on UAVs. In particular, system dynamics are used to model the optimal routes that the UAVs will adopt to reach their destinations. The GPS spoofer’s effect on each UAV’s route is also captured by the model. To this end, the spoofer’s optimal imposed locations on the UAVs, are analytically derived; allowing the UAVs to predict their traveling routes under attack. Then, a countermeasure mechanism is developed to mitigate the effect of the GPS spoofing attack. The countermeasure is built on the premise of cooperative localization, in which a UAV can determine its location using nearby UAVs instead of the possibly compromised GPS locations. To better utilize the proposed defense mechanism, a dynamic Stackelberg game is formulated to model the interactions between a GPS spoofer and a drone operator. In particular, the drone operator acts as the leader that determines its optimal strategy in light of the spoofer’s expected response strategy. The equilibrium strategies of the game are then analytically characterized and studied through a novel proposed algorithm. The simulation results show that, when combined with the Stackelberg strategies, the proposed defense mechanism will outperform baseline strategy selection techniques in terms of reducing the possibility of UAV capture.

中文翻译：

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遇险无人机：保护GPS欺骗的无人机的博弈论对策

针对无人机的一个主要安全威胁是通过全球定位系统（GPS）欺骗进行的捕获，攻击者在其中操纵无人机的GPS信号以进行捕获。考虑到无人机广泛用于各种目的，迫切需要开发针对此类攻击的新安全解决方案。本文介绍了一种数学框架，用于分析和减轻GPS欺骗攻击对无人机的影响。特别是，系统动力学用于对无人机到达目的地的最佳路线进行建模。该模型还可以捕获GPS踏板在每个无人机路线上的影响。为此，可以得出推导者在无人飞行器上的最佳施加位置。使无人机能够预测受到攻击的行驶路线。然后，已开发出一种对策机制来减轻GPS欺骗攻击的影响。该对策是在协作定位的前提下构建的，在这种协作中，UAV可以使用附近的UAV而不是可能受损的GPS位置来确定其位置。为了更好地利用所提出的防御机制，制定了动态Stackelberg游戏以对GPS泄洪者与无人机操作员之间的相互作用进行建模。尤其是，无人机操作员将根据指挥员的预期响应策略来确定最佳策略。然后，通过一种新颖的算法对游戏的均衡策略进行特征分析和研究。仿真结果表明，结合Stackelberg策略，