Wireless communication is currently undergoing a significant transformation with the ongoing deployments of 5G networks. However, an even bigger breakthrough is anticipated with the arrival of 6G. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are expected to play a pivotal role in extending the reach of wireless communication and establishing pervasive systems. Nevertheless, in the context of UAVs, the research community has primarily focused on exploring RF solutions, featuring significant limitations in terms of communication reliability and security.

The grand challenge of the project is to investigate and demonstrate a resilient and secure end-to-end system for air-to-air UAVs communication, and to stations on the ground using Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) technology, thus complementing current efforts using RF technologies.

The scientific contribution lies in harnessing the unique propagation properties of Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) technology for secure directional communication. The project addresses the shortcomings on reliability caused by the mobile patterns of UAVs and by the directional nature of light-based transceivers by introducing innovative techniques for providing a reconfigurable front-end supported by embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods for the decision making.