Trust-Based Collision Avoidance for Unmanned Aircraft Systems

The rapid expansion of Unmanned Aircraft (UA) usage has increased the need for reliable collision avoidance systems. This paper presents a trust-based, sensor-free collision avoidance system for UAs, leveraging the Drone Remote Identification Protocol (DRIP) to establish trust between aircraft. The proposed system uses a geometric-based cooperative avoidance method to optimize efficiency and a fail-safe repulsion avoidance mechanism for enhanced safety. The proposed system’s effectiveness is evaluated through a series of simulations and real-world tests, focusing on metrics such as safety, flight distance, flight time, and acceleration requirements. The results are promising, indicating that the trust-based approach may successfully balance efficiency and safety, providing insights into potential use cases for DRIP.