Received the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers' Excellence Research Award for highly confidential drone communications

PRODRONE Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as PRODRONE) received the 2018 Excellent Research Award from the IEICE Safe and Secure Life and ICT Research Committee (hereinafter referred to as ICTSSL). This research relates to advanced secrecy of drone communications, and PRODRONE (Managing Director: Kazuo Ichihara) was awarded the award jointly with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic).

From left in the photo: Ryoji Nishizawa, research engineer, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and Kazuo Ichihara, managing director of PRODRONE.

ICT Research Group “Excellent Research Award,” “Research Encouragement Award,” and “Safety and Security Best Practice Award” winners

This research paper, ``Secure communication technology for wide-area, multiple control of highly confidential drones,'' describes the results of realizing a drone system with information-theoretical security, which is different from the currently widespread cryptographic methods based on computational security, at a realistic operating cost. Please refer to the paper below for details.

Communication mechanism overview

Communication mechanism system diagram

"Secure communication technology for wide-area and multiple control of highly confidential drones" Toshiyuki Ito (NICT), Kazuo Ichihara (Prodrone), Hiroyuki Tanaka, Katsunori Kogata, Masakatsu Matsuo (Panasonic), Ryoji Nishizawa, Mikio Fujiwara, Masahide Sasaki (NICT), 2018 General Conference Lecture Proceedings, A-19-7.

In the future, PRODRONE plans to develop highly secretive drones using this technology as an option for regular drone systems.■What is the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers Safe and Secure Life and ICT Research Specialist Committee (ICTSSL)?ICTSSL is a specialized committee that conducts interdisciplinary studies that take into account knowledge from the field of social sciences, such as the state of information required during ICT disasters, as well as needs from the field for the maintenance, management, and operation of social infrastructure such as communications, electricity, roads, and railways, which are the foundation of life. The purpose of this project is to provide a place for experts in various fields such as companies, universities, research institutions, etc. to participate in each research project, to exchange information and foster mutual enlightenment, and to promote efficient interdisciplinary research and development. ICTSSL website: http://www.ieice.org/ess/ictssl/