[Studies in Computational Intelligence 481] Artur Babiarz, Robert Bieda, Karol Jędrasiak, Aleksander Nawrat (auth.), Aleksander Nawrat, Zygmunt Kuś (eds.) - Vision Based Systemsfor UAV Applications (2013, Sprin

The Dedicated Wireless Communication Device for Group of Unmanned Vehicles 249
case of the connection failure there is no possibility for cooperation therefore such
model is usually only used for monitoring of the vehicles parameters. In the fig1.b
a model allowing vehicles cooperation is presented. Each of the vehicles is communicating
via each other using universal radio modem and PC class computer
responsible for data encryption and implementation of the secure communication
protocol. Such approach does not require central computer therefore its maximum
range of operation is not limited as long as the cooperating objects are within
reach of its own radio modems.
Fig. 1. The idea of communication in the groups of unmanned vehicles. A) communication
with the use of central ground base station. B) communication with use of local computers
responsible for communication.
The main disadvantage of such solution is the obligation of carrying the relatively
heavy PC class computer only for communication purposes. It is well
known that the PC computers are not as reliable as dedicated solutions therefore it
was decided to design a communication device that allows unmanned vehicles
transparent communication without the need for installing PC. A schema of such
model is presented in the fig. 2.
During design phase of the dedicated secure radio communication device presented
in the article some assumptions about the application scenarios were made.
First assumption is that a pair of devices that are willing to communicate with
each other are required to have a common symmetric key used during authorization
and attempting connection processes. It is allowed that more devices, in some
cases even the whole group are using the same symmetric key during the process
of authorization. Single communication device can store multiple keys. However
only one key per remote connection link is stored. The limitation’s origin is the
fact that before application the communication devices are configured using cable
connection. During configuration an authorization key is installed along with information
about the devices that belong to the group and common group authorization
key.