Modulation Recognition of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Control Signals Using Software-Defined Radio

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are used in a wide range of tasks. Many UAV owners use these appliances for private purposes. In these cases, it often means non-authorized flights over public or private areas or events. Many flights also take place over no-flight zones. These cases could be considered as malicious even if UAV operators are not informed that flights are forbidden in these areas. This article presents the results of series of experiments devoted to the determination of modulation of control signals used by several commercially available UAVs, using a software-defined radio (SDR). The ultimate goal of the research is the development of a solution that would help to identify UAVs by decoding of the control signals.