Lightweight Cryptography in UAV systems

The development and adoption of lightweight cryptographic algorithms have become increasingly important due to the growing volume of data transmitted by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other unmanned systems. These systems demand security solutions that are both efficient and resource-conscious. Lightweight cryptography offers a promising balance of performance, low energy consumption, and implementation simplicity. In this paper, we present the first comparative analysis specifically focused on lightweight cryptographic algorithms for UAVs, assessing their suitability for real-time control and data protection in resource-constrained environments. A key contribution of our work is a practical experiment measuring processor load, memory usage, and energy consumption of selected algorithms on drone hardware. The results provide a clear evaluation of each algorithm’s effectiveness and efficiency under realistic operating conditions.