Date Approved

8-18-2025

Embargo Period

8-18-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S. Mechanical Engineering

Department

Mechanical Engineering

College

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering

Advisor

Chen Shen, Ph.D.

Committee Member 1

Hong Zhang, Ph.D.

Committee Member 2

Ben Wu

Keywords

Attack;Defense;Drone;Filter;Meta-material;Ultrasonic

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to reproduce ultrasonic attacks on consumer drone gyroscopes and mitigate the attacks using specifically designed meta-material acoustic resonators. Drones use a Micro Electrical Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Gyroscope for collecting flight data, due to the mechanical nature of these gyroscopes they are susceptible to being resonated at specific frequencies. For these MEMS gyroscopes the majority have a resonance frequency in the ultrasonic range, making attack imperceptible by humans. (1) A Laser Doppler Vibrometer was used to accurately measure the frequency which affects the drone’s gyroscope. (2) To mitigate the effects of the attacks acoustic resonators were designed to reduce the sound pressure level of specific frequencies reaching the MEMS gyroscope. COMSOL was used to generate a simulation of what frequencies the resonators will affect. Testing was done to verify the effect of the resonators. Real world flight testing was also conducted to measure the effect of the attacks and the level of mitigation the meta-material resonator filter provide. The results show the meta-material filter can have a 50-60% mitigation effect on the attack.

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