A Decentralized GPS Positioning Consensus Based on Secure Image Watermarking for UAV Networks

The popularity of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in recent years has accelerated the demand for robust image security to secure communication and authenticate images or videos from usage by unauthorized parties who may seek access to sensitive information. Having unauthorized and deceptive communication, from interference in signals to data manipulation, will be a challenge. This paper presents a novel approach to integrating GPS positioning with secure image capture and decentralized coordination for UAVs. Using EI-Gamal encryption and Magic Number Fragmentation, GPS coordinates are securely encrypted, and GPS data into captured images through a hybrid Discrete Wavelet Transform-Discrete Cosine Transform (DWT-DCT) watermarking technique. A consensus mechanism ensures decentralized and privacy-preserving computation of secure meeting points for UAV s. Moreover, the system maintains high image quality, with superior PSNR and SSIM values, while demonstrating resilience against signal processing and geometric attacks. These findings affirm the method's ability to extract encrypted GPS coordinates reliably, enhancing UAV network security.