Remote identification of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is becoming increasingly important since more UAVs are being widely used for different needs in urban areas. For example, in the US and in the EU, identification and position broadcasting is already a requirement for the use of drones. However, the current solutions do not validate the position of the UAV but its identity, while trusting the given position. Therefore, a more advanced solution enabling the proof of location is needed to avoid spoofing. We propose the combination of a permissioned blockchain managed by public authorities together with UWB-based communication to approach this. Specifically, we leverage the identity management tools from Hyperledger Fabric, an open-source permissioned blockchain framework, and ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging, leading to situated communication (i.e., simultaneous communication and localization). This approach allows us to prove both the UAV identity and also the location it broadcasts through interaction with ground infrastructure in known locations. Our initial experiments show that the proposed approach is viable and UWB transceivers can be used for UAVs to validate both their identity and position with ground infrastructure deployed in known locations.

翻译：无人驾驶飞行器（UAV）在城市地区各领域应用日益广泛，其远程身份识别正变得愈发重要。例如，美国和欧盟已要求无人机使用必须进行身份识别和位置广播。然而，现有方案虽能验证无人机身份，却默认信任其提供的定位信息，并未对位置本身进行验证。因此，亟需开发支持位置证明的先进方案以防止欺骗攻击。本文提出将公共机构管理的许可链与超宽带通信相结合的方法。具体而言，我们利用开源许可链框架Hyperledger Fabric的身份管理工具，结合超宽带（UWB）测距技术，实现情境通信（即同步通信与定位）。该方法通过已知位置的地面基础设施与无人机交互，可同时证明无人机身份及其广播的位置信息。初步实验表明，该方案切实可行，部署于已知位置的地面基础设施可通过UWB收发器验证无人机的身份与位置。