Securing a UAV using individual characteristics from an EEG signal

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been applied for both civilian and military applications; scientific research involving UAVs has encompassed a wide range of scientific study. However, communication with unmanned vehicles are subject to attack and compromise. Such attacks have been reported as early as 2009, when a Predator UAV's video stream was compromised. Since UAVs extensively utilize autonomous behavior, it is important to develop an autopilot system that is robust to potential cyber-attack. In this work, we present a biometric system to encrypt communication between a UAV and a computerized base station. This is accomplished by generating a key derived from the Beta component of a user's EEG. When communication with a UAV is attacked, a safety mechanism directs the UAV to a safe ‘home’ location. This system has been validated on a commercial UAV under malicious attack conditions.