Exploiting UAV Attitude for Covert Communications: Dynamics-Consistent Trajectory-Attitude Co-Design

2026-10-01

AI Summary

This study addresses the limitation of existing covert communication trajectory designs for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which neglect the coupling between flight dynamics and antenna orientation. To overcome this, we propose a dynamics-consistent joint trajectory-attitude co-optimization framework for rotary-wing UAVs. Specifically, an acceleration-induced attitude model is established, and the resulting non-convex optimization problem is solved via the minorization-maximization (MM) algorithm, with Kullback-Leibler divergence constraints incorporated to guarantee covertness. Furthermore, the framework is extended to a robust control formulation that accounts for actuator uncertainties. This work represents the first realization of joint trajectory and attitude optimization for UAV covert communications. Numerical simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, demonstrating significant improvements in covert communication performance.

Abstract

Existing trajectory designs for covert communications with uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) typically rely on point-mass kinematics, which overlook the inherent coupling between flight maneuvers and antenna orientation. Motivated by recent studies linking UAV acceleration to attitude, we investigate dynamics-consistent trajectory and attitude co-design for rotary-wing UAV covert communications. We consider a UAV equipped with a directional antenna transmitting confidential information to a legitimate ground receiver in the presence of a warden. The acceleration-induced reduced attitude of the UAV is explicitly modeled together with its impact on the attitude-dependent directional channel gain. To ensure covertness, we derive a per-slot constraint based on the Kullback--Leibler (KL) divergence at the warden. We then formulate a joint trajectory and attitude optimization problem to maximize the average achievable covert rate subject to covertness, motion, thrust-magnitude, attitude-smoothness, and acceleration-domain safety constraints induced by roll and pitch limits. The resulting problem is non-convex because the channel gains depend jointly on position, acceleration, and attitude. To solve it, we develop a minorization--maximization (MM)-based algorithm that constructs a concave lower bound on the transmission rate and a convex upper bound on the covert constraint at each iteration. We further extend the framework to imperfect attitude control and develop a robust design against attitude tracking errors caused by actuator limitations, sensor noise, and control delays. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed dynamics-consistent design and highlight the benefit of jointly optimizing UAV trajectory and attitude for covert communications.

Problem

• covert communications
• UAV trajectory design
• attitude dynamics
• directional antenna
• joint optimization

Innovation

• Covert Communications
• Trajectory-Attitude Co-Design
• UAV Dynamics
• Minorization-Maximization
• Robust Optimization