SecuPilot: A Security Coprocessor-Integrated Platform for Autonomous UAV Security

This article introduces SecuPilot, a Security Coprocessor-integrated platform designed to enhance the resilience and operational security of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in increasingly adversarial environments. Recognizing the critical role UAVs play in diverse applications, SecuPilot builds upon established architectures by incorporating a dedicated security module that performs a series of comprehensive preflight checks to establish a robust root of trust. Once airborne, the platform continuously monitors the UAV’s operational state during runtime to infer and maintain its security, ensuring that any anomalies are promptly identified and addressed without disrupting mission-critical functions. We develop a custom Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation framework replicating realistic operational scenarios and adversarial conditions to validate the system’s performance and effectiveness. This rigorous evaluation demonstrates that SecuPilot can successfully mitigate potential threats while preserving the essential performance characteristics of the UAV. The results underscore the viability of a scalable, hardware-centric approach to UAV security, paving the way for safer autonomous systems capable of operating in complex, threat-prone environments.