Usability Assessment of Drone Technology With Regard to

Land Border Security

Stefan Hristozov

and Boris Shishkov

2,3

Institute of Systems Engineering and Robotics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

IICREST, 53 Iv. Susanin Str., 1618 Sofia, Bulgaria

Keywords: Usability, Drone Technology, Land Border Security.

Abstract: Some years ago, it would have been amazing to see a drone flying and behaving ‘on its own’, not knowing

whether it is distantly navigated by a human or it is somehow autonomic. Currently we observe that: (i)

Youngsters can easily buy toy drones and navigate them distantly; (ii) Military drones realize sophisticated

operations in dangerous environments. This indicates for impressive advances in the technologies underlying

drone developments, and that is all about ICT – Information and Communication Technology: current ICT is

often embedded in services and/or devices. It is ICT that brings together hardware, software, and net-ware

features, to enable useful solutions in different domains, such as aviation. As it concerns particularly drones,

they represent complex devices comprising mechanical and ICT ‘components’. Current drones can be piloted

remotely. Further, being equipped with video cameras, they can provide fast access to images (and/or real-

time videos) from a range of locations. Finally, advanced solar power supplies make it possible for drones to

stay up for a very long time. Hence, this all makes current drone technology societally relevant. At the same

time, many questions have not yet been answered (even though technology developed) – several of those

questions are: Is current drone technology indeed reliable if used in critical (rescue) operations? How is the

human navigating a drone responsible for what the drone would do? Who is responsible in the case of

autonomic drones? Are current software platforms running on drones powerful enough to cover all possible

situations that may pop up in the sky? To answer those and other related questions, it is necessary to ‘step in

the shoes’ of a particular application domain since those issues are domain-specific – an answer concerning

one domain is not necessarily valid for another domain. Hence, inspired by another paper in the current

proceedings, we focus on land border security. We therefore aim at studying the usability of drone technology,

with regard to the mentioned domain. For this reason, we firstly discuss drone technology in general and then

we analyze its usability in land border security. This analysis is a contribution of the current position paper

and inspiration for further research featuring the development of advanced context-aware drone platforms.

1 INTRODUCTION

Some years ago, it would have been amazing to see a

drone flying and behaving ‘on its own’, not knowing

whether it is distantly navigated by a human or it is

somehow autonomic. Currently we observe that: (i)

Youngsters can easily buy toy drones and navigate

them distantly; (ii) Military drones realize

sophisticated operations in dangerous environments

(IoTDI, 2017). This indicates for impressive

advances in the technologies underlying drone

developments, and that is all about ICT – Information

and Communication Technology: current ICT is often

embedded in services and/or devices

(AWARENESS, 2008). It is ICT that brings together

hardware, software, and net-ware features, to enable

useful solutions in different domains, such as

aviation. As it concerns particularly drones, they

represent complex devices comprising mechanical

and ICT ‘components’. Current drones can be piloted

remotely. Further, being equipped with video

cameras, they can provide fast access to images

(and/or real-time videos) from a range of locations.

Finally, advanced solar power facilities make it

possible for drones to stay up for a very long time

(Gavrailov, 2014). Hence, this all makes current

drone technology societally relevant. At the same

time, we argue that many questions have not yet been

answered (even though technology has developed) –

several of those questions are: Is current drone

216

technology indeed reliable if used in critical (rescue)

operations? How is the human navigating a drone

responsible for what the drone would do? Who is

responsible in the case of autonomic drones? Are

current software platforms running on drones

powerful enough to cover all possible situations that

may pop up in the sky? To answer those and other

related questions, it is necessary to ‘step in the shoes’

of a particular application domain since those issues

are domain-specific – an answer concerning one

domain is not necessarily valid also for another

domain (IoTDI, 2017). Hence, inspired by another

paper published in the current proceedings (Shishkov

et al., 2017), we focus particularly on land border

security (FRONTEX, 2017). We therefore aim at

studying the usability of drone technology, with

regard to the mentioned domain. For this reason, we

firstly discuss drone technology in general and then

we analyze its usability in land border security. This

represents the contribution of the current position

paper and an inspiration for further research featuring

the development of advanced context-aware drone

platforms.

As for current drones, they are unmanned aircraft

often operated distantly (but it is also possible that

drones are to some extent autonomic), as mentioned

before. Drones come in different sizes and shapes –

from microUAVs that can be held in the palm of one’s

hand to large airships that rival the size of traditional

piloted craft (Gavrailov, 2014). As already

mentioned, drones are empowered by mechanical,

software, hardware, and net-ware components, and

are designed to: primarily collect data (in the context

of diverse tasks), trigger some actuators, and so on.

Depending on their main function, drones can be

designed based on different aircraft styles, such as:

fixed wing, rotary-wing, tilt-rotor, ducted fan, and so

on. Drones may be piloted remotely (as mentioned

already) and are often equipped with video cameras.

Drones are partially used in military operations,

rescue actions, and so on. Nevertheless, there is

insufficient justification to date on the real value and

reliability of drone technology, for example, in the

area of security (Drent at al., 2014).

For this reason, the usability analysis presented in

the current paper, is considered actual.

The remaining of the paper is organized as

follows: We firstly introduce and discuss drone

technology, taking a black-box perspective towards

drones: stressing on the functionality of drones with

respect to their environment (Section 2) and then

taking a white-box perspective with regard to a drone,

analyzing its internal components, processes, and

rules (Section 3). Then, in Section 4, we analyze the

usability of drone technology especially in land

border security, featuring particular relevant strengths

of this technology. Finally, we present the

conclusions in Section 5.

As for Section 2 and Section 3, they are backed by

the following references:

• Adams and Friedland, 2011;

• American Red Cross, 2015;

• Bravo and Leiras, 2015;

• Drent et al., 2014;

• European Emergency Number Association 2015;

• Gavrailov, 2014;

• Guerra and McNerney, 2015;

• ICARUS, 2012;

• Lachar and Maroney, 2012;

• OCHA - UN, 2014;

• SenseFly, 2016;

• Tanzi et al., 2016.

2 DRONE-TECHNOLOGY

In introducing and discussing drone technology, we

start from a more abstract view and move to a more

concrete view. This we do in order to keep good

traceability to concepts, such that comparison with

and/or alignment to other technologies is possible.

2.1 Conceptual View

Essentially, drones are devices themselves and in

order to be able to function, they need distant

command and satellite navigation. Hence, there are

interactions: (i) between a ground control station and

a drone; (ii) between a drone and a satellite. This

points to a conceptual entity-to-entity model featuring

collaborations with three types of entities, namely:

drone, satellite, and ground control station, as

illustrated in Figure 1:

Legend:

E: Entity

D: Drone

S: Satellite

C: ground Control

station

S D C

Figure 1: Drone technology – conceptual model.

As it is seen from the figure (left), there are entity

types and one entity can interact with another entity;

as it is also seen from the figure (right), there are three

entity sub-types, namely: DRONE, SATELLITE, and

GROUND CONTROL STATION. This is a

simplified view on drone technology and

Usability Assessment of Drone Technology With Regard to Land Border Security

217

performance; still, since only essential concepts are

reflected in the presented model, it is possible to add

further elaborations, staying considtent with it.

In the following sub-section, we will take a

technology-specific view on the above.

2.2 Technology-Specific View

Even though the technology-specific view on drone

functioning is to be consistent with the conceptual

view, there are more technical and operational details

that are to be considered in such a technology

perspective. A partial technology-specific view on

drone functioning is depicted in Figure 2:

Figure 2: Drone technology – technical view.

As it is seen from the figure and as also suggested

by the conceptual model: there are three layers,

namely ground control stations (‘stations’, for short),

drones, and satellites. Further, drones are capable of

operating (flying) with certain autonomy;

nevertheless, there is always human decision-making

and responsibility behind – this is conveyed through

the stations (there is a bi-directional communication

between the station and the drone: the drone receiving

instructions (commands) from the station and the

station receiving (processed) information from the

drone). Still, the commands delivered from the station

are not enough for allowing the drone to operate

adequately since for this the drone would need precise

navigation – this is provided through corresponding

(GNSS) satellites; satellites are also used sometimes

for facilitating the communication between the drone

and the station (or the communication with third

parties). With regard to this, the following

technologies are important as relevant to the

operation of drones:

• Data-link (up-link and down-link of data in real-

time) – in order for this to be secure and protected

against jamming, encryption is needed;

• The aircraft proximity warning “Sense and

Avoid” systems;

- This including approved automatic detection

and avoidance equipment to be used as a

mitigation means in case the drone-pilot

cannot avoid C2-linkloss during Extended

Visual Line of Sight (EVLOS) and Beyond

Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS);

• Automatic flight control systems (and guidance);

• Navigation equipment (Inertial/GPS);

• Redundancy in critical location tracking systems

such as GPS and location reporting systems;

• Sensor technology, such as Weather Sensors, for

example, installed depending on the weight

category of the particular drone.

Since functionally, two issues are essential when

‘using’ a drone, namely: (i) its collecting data from

the environment; (ii) its streaming back data to the

station, the payload concept is important – it is about

determining the type of data the drone can collectit;

streaming back data is important as well and this is

done via the C2 (Communication and Control) link.

All this concerns sensor technology and data-

streaming technology. The products diversity related

to the mentioned technologies justifies the design of

various drones, in terms of size and weight (including

very small ones).

As mentioned already, those issues (and other

related issues, such as the quality and the

requirements for the sensor pack) are domain-

specific.

2.3 Classification of Drone Platforms

There are different drones for a wide range of

applications with different sizes. Drones can be

classified in many ways: Use (civil vs military), Lift

(fixed-wing vs multi-rotors), MTOW (maximum

take-off weight), and so on. For a conceptual

approach, a good way is to look at drone’s

performance, so it becomes easier to understand the

underlying capabilities. We claim that drones could

be usefully classified based on their size and payload

since those are essential features from a functional

point of view. For this reason, we are considering a

US classification that reflects those features:

• Hand-launched, lightweight, low payload, multi-

rotor drones, weighing less than 25 kg and flying

at altitudes under 300 m. – they can handle

localized imaging and be used for mapping with

light payload;

• Long endurance reconnaissance and surveillance,

fixed wing drones, weighing between 21 kg. and

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50 kg., and flying at altitude under 3500 m. above

ground level AGL - they can handle wide-area

imaging and be used for mapping with light

payload;

• Long endurance, large payload drones, weighing

up to 1320 kg. and flying at altitudes under 8000

m. mean sea level MSL - they can handle

localized imaging and be used for mapping with

heavy payload;

• Heavy lift helicopter drones, often weighing more

than 1320 kg. – they can be used for transportation

of people and fly to remote locations;

• Long endurance, high altitude reconnaissance and

surveillance drones, weighing more than 1320 kg.

and having approximately the same size (and

similar capabilities) as traditional manned aircraft

– they can be used for wide-area searches.

All those platform choices concern corresponding

platform characteristics and application needs, and

often considering the trade-offs between the two is

necessary, as depicted in Figure 3:

Figure 3: Trade-off between platforms and applications.

3 MAKING DRONES

OPERATIONAL

Based on the functional (black-box) view on drone

technology, as outlined in the previous section, we are

presenting in the current section an operational

(white-box) view on that, staying mainly focused on

the payload aspects (that concern data capturing) and

the software driving the drone, while abstracting from

other engineering concerns, such as mechanics,

motor, energy consumption, and so on.

Still in addressing payload and software, we are

to keep in mind the particular drone mission that in

turn relates to the aerial drone platform of choice. As

an example: Fixed-wing platforms would be

appropriate for scanning vast areas and/or for

realizing long range flights, while rotor-drone

platforms would be appropriate when situation-

awareness is needed, featuring small areas and/or a

specific target. Hence, taking this into account, we

consider in the remaining of the current section

payload and software as essential with regard to the

operation of a drone.

3.1 Payload

While platforms dictate the drone’s ability to access

certain environments, its payload often determines

the type of data it can collect. Remote sensors like

Electro-Optical (EO) and Infrared (IR) (EO/IR)

cameras can help establishing situation-awareness

while communications relay payloads can be used to

broadcast wireless frequencies wherever the drone

travels. Other sensors are used in scanning the ground

nevertheless – those are called Mapping (M) Sensors.

In the remaining of this sub-section, we briefly

consider EO/IR sensors and M sensors.

1. EO/IR sensors are the workhorses of drone-

based sensing technology. These sensors provide

the most commonly used data collected from

drone platforms. We can consider in particular:

• EO Sensors, mainly used for day operations;

those sensors are relatively cheap and widely

available; they include video cameras and

high-definition photography equipment.

• IR Sensors are excellent for night operations;

those sensors detect the heat signatures of

various objects; this is particularly useful for

locating intruders at night and in large, open

environments.

• Dual EO/IR Sensors (combined into a dual

package) can be used for both day and night

operations.

2. M sensors scan the ground and create 2D or 3D

maps of the surrounding area. Much drone-based

mapping is currently geo-referenced, allowing it

to be easily transposed onto existing geographical

information systems (GIS):

• LiDAR: capable of creating highly detailed

topographical maps and 3D maps of border

areas, useful in specifying maps of high

precision.

• Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR): capable of

providing detailed imagery of the ground day

or night through cloud, fog, and smoke; also

capable of detecting metal and other material.

Further, we consider communication relay payloads

that allow drones to act as mobile communication

stations, beaming Wi-Fi Internet, cellular service,

radio, and other important signals to security

personnel.

Hence, given their ability to quickly reach high

altitudes (and hover in place for a prolonged perios –

this is particularly valid for rotary-wing drone

platforms), drones provide ideal stopgap solutions

when communication infrastructure is unavailable.

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219

3.2 Software

Drones need to be paired with sophisticated software

– this is to improve the (data) link between the drone

and its operator, but also to facilitate the streamline

sharing of drone-collected data with other

stakeholders. Such data can be utilized by mapping

software products featuring maps and GIS –

Geographic information Systems.

As for the requirements that concern drone

software, they would inevitably relate to the typical

drone environment – often aligned with military

structures. This assumes considering three layers as

follows:

• The bottom (executive) layer concerns the flight

management and navigation. Therefore, the

corresponding software support would be

responsible for maintaining a controlled flight,

often performed by an on-board autopilot. To this

layer we can add also payload control systems

harvesting data from the environment, such as

sensors and radars.

• The tactical layer concerns the station (see Figure

2) where all the information about position,

heading, speed etc. is ‘crunched’ with the mission

important information from the payload and all is

presented on the displays of the operators.

• The top (strategic) layer receives full real-time

picture from all deployed drones and available

infrastructure, for the superiors in order to make

proper decisions.

4 USABILITY IN BORDER

SECURITY

We refer to an application scenario featuring land

border security (LBS, 2012), which is considered in

another paper from the current proceedings (Shishkov

et al., 2017). The scenario reflects the security

protection of a land border segment equipped with

wired border fence. There is no border crossing point

in the considered area; this means that the security

goal is to prevent any border crossings. Still, even

though such a border segment could be secured

professionally, it is physically impossible for border

police officers to be anytime anywhere to react upon

violations, if counting on traditional equipment

(Shishkov and Mitrakos, 2016).

This leads to several important DEMANDS

whose consideration would bring in useful results:

1. Effective monitoring of the large area around the

wired fence, limited not only to the very close

proximity to the fence itself;

2. Situation analysis capturing both problematic

spots (for example: a crowd passing illegally) and

available resources (for example: border police

officers and vehicles);

3. Rescuing a border police officer (or another

person) in trouble (for example: because of

weather conditions).

Hence, those identified demands are basis for our

analyzing the relevant strengths of drone technology.

In this regard, drones are claimed to present an

attractive proposition mainly due to their providing

unique viewing angles at low altitudes, something

impossible to be achieved either by manned aircraft

or by fixed cameras. For example, drones, flying over

a border fence, are in a position to view much more

that a fixed camera can, and cover a much vaster area

than a human can physically cover while patrolling.

Further, drone technology is highly deployable.

Drones, particularly small models, can be launched in

a variety of environments without the need for a

runway – this makes drone technology useful at the

border where terrains are often difficult to handle.

Therefore, we consider drone technology as

having good potential to usefully support border

security. At the same time, we observe the need for

corresponding control because as it was discussed

already, drones may be autonomic to some extent

and/or they may be navigated from distance – both

cases assume risk of situational mis-interpretaion, in

our view. Hence, establishing control should mainly

be about the adequacy of task formulations and the

validity of situation perception. On such a basis and

taking into account the capabilities of the particular

drone, it would be possible to actually involve

drone(s) in particular operations at the border.

If this would be successful, then drones could

indeed releave officers from some of their most

dangerous duties (for example: rescuing a border

police officer or another person who is in trouble). In

this, a drone (representing an unmanned device)

would deliver specific types of actions that can

contribute to a smart and better decision making

process, especially as it concerns disaster

management (also in the border security context):

• Informer: A drone would often be capable of

geting more information from the accident spotm

which in turn would allow for a smart decision-

making to be delivered accordingly.

• Helper: In some situations, a drone would be

capable of delivering medication(s) and/or

equipment needed in approaching an accident.

Finally, such solutions, if delivered through drones,

would be cost-efficient, especially if compared to

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man-run helicopter actions. Also, a drone could do

times more as monitoring, compared to what fixed

cameras and physical persons could accomplish.

At the same time, there are particular limitations

of drone-driven solutions, such as the risk of mis-

interpretation of visual information as well as the

flight risks in situations of strong wind / turbulence

and or icing.

Summarizing the Strengths of Drone Technology

Based on our considering drone technology in Section

2 and Section 3, and inspired by the border security

demands and related discussion (see above), we

summarize the strengths of drone technology,

particularly with regard to land border security. In

doing this, we take into account that border protection

uses a series of strategies, some more effective than

others, to monitor huge strips of (rugged) terrain

along the border: In some situations, it is needed to

involve more border police officers in the protection

of the border; In other situations, it would be enough

to just better maintain and reinforce the fences (if

any), barriers, access roads, and so on; In yet other

situations, the deployment of specialized technology

would be considered necessary, such that advanced

monitoring can be realized (this may include high

towers or radar, camera equipment, and so on) (LBS,

2012).

Hence, we identify strengths of drone technology,

especially related to the monitoring challenge.

Currently, fixed towers are used, which include radar

as well as day and night cameras (mounted on a series

of towers along the border). The radar and cameras

transmit data to the border control center, where

border police officers determine an appropriate

course of action accordingly. Nevertheless, the

limitations of such fixed static equipment are

obvious. A wisely chosen drone platform can meet

targetted demands in this regard, providing also

augmentation of the existing systems via data

transfer, surveillance, agility and additional

flexibility over the mentioned static technologies (a

surveillance would be much more effective from an

aerial point of view); this would relieve personnel

from missions, as well.

Further, drones can step into aviation shoes

concerning aviation services for border

surveillance and goods delivery, due to

cost effectiveness. With regard to surveillance,

drones are capable of carrying platforms for radar and

long-distance cameras. With regard to goods,

delivery, it is possible, depending on the drone

platform of choice and corresponding weight

limitations (initial testings of such deliveries have

already been completed and there is an ongoing

certification for them).

5 CONCLUSIONS

Aerial drones feature promising new technological

solutions relevant to many aspects of our lives,

security included (and in particular – land border

security). At the land border, drones are capable of

complementing traditional manned activities (such as

patrolling, monitoring, conducting rescue operations,

and so on), by helping to ensure that those activities

are conducted safer, faster, and more efficiently. In

particular:

• Drones are capable of providing a border police

officer with situation-awareness – they can help

locate intruders, perform structural analysis of

damaged facilities (for example: a border fence

facility) over large distances, and deliver needed

supplies and equipment.

• Drones are capable of assisting with mapping and

corresponding planning.

• Drones are capable of approaching dangerous

zones where the safety of border police officers

would be endangered.

Still, we claim that drones would be capable of being

so useful only if drone roles and tasks are adequately

specified not only from the engineering perspective

but also from the domain perspective:

• Engineers should make sure that the user

requirements are realistic with regard to the

technical possibilities and related limitations of

the drone platform of choice;

• Security experts should make sure that the tasks

assigned to drones are complementing (rather

than conflicting) with regard to the tasks fulfilled

by border police officers and also that

corresponding performance indicators are used,

such that the information captured (by drones) as

well as its interpretation are justified.

Those are the conclusions drawn in the current

position paper in which we have analyzed the

usability of drone technology with regard to a

particular application domain (namely: land border

security), inspired by a high-level study of drone

technology and the consideration of the mentioned

domain and a related application scenario.

A limitation of our work is that it is too high-level

and insufficiently concrete as it concerns enterprise /

software specifications (Shishkov, 2017) related to

the enabling of drone usage at the land border. This

will be the main focus of our further research.

Usability Assessment of Drone Technology With Regard to Land Border Security

221

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