Blockchain-Based Swarm Drones for Surveillance

Abstract

Blockchain and drone technologies can operate in cooperation with each other. As the number of drones increases, managing them becomes a significant challenge. A swarm of drones, also referred to as swarm drones, must operate reliably and securely. In this study, blockchain technology is utilized through a smart contract to ensure both security and reliability. Swarm drones are deployed for surveillance missions, where each execution corresponds to a single mission. These missions are represented using a simple model. A smart contract maintains the essential mission data in the model. The mission is divided into smaller tasks. Until all the tasks are completed, they are executed by drones in parallel. The smart contract, implemented on the Ethereum platform, securely exchanges information with the drones. The proposed model functions dynamically. It reorganizes when drones leave or new drones join the system. Because blockchain platforms have limited resources, particularly in memory and the number of permissible execution operations, optimizations are applied to both the smart contract and drone programs to accommodate these constraints within the surveillance framework. The proposed surveillance model is implemented and simulated to analyze its dynamic behavior. © 2026 IEEE.